Ashes - Enemy In The Ashes Part 28

"h.e.l.lo, Ben," Mike replied. "I've finally got some information on the whereabouts of Abdullah El Farrar and his top men for you."

"Good," Ben answered, anxious to find out where the leader of the terrorists was so he could finish his campaign against the terrorists.

"The last word we have on him is that he went to the port city of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia in his Lear jet a few days ago. Evidently, he wanted to personally supervise the retaking of Riyadh and Tehran."

"Do you think he's still there, now that his army has been so thoroughly defeated?"

"My contact in Dhahran says the Lear jet is still on the runway, but he can't confirm just where El Farrar is staying in the city or even if heis in fact still present."

"Thanks, Mike," Ben said. "Maybe I'll just take a little trip to Dhahran and find out for myself."

Ben signed off the radio, and then asked Corrie to get him in touch with Jean-Francois Chapelle at the United Nations.

Chapelle was on the line in minutes. "h.e.l.lo, Ben," Chapelle said.

"h.e.l.lo, Jean-Francois," Ben replied. "We have good 291.

291.

news for you. The terrorist armies have been defeated and the oil facilities are in safe hands once again."

Ben could almost hear the sigh of relief from Chapelle. "That is excellent news, Ben. The world owes you a great debt of grat.i.tude."

"I will leave my soldiers here until they can be replaced by United Nations troops, Jean-Francois," Ben said.

"I will make arrangements immediately to have your troops relieved, Ben."

"That's good, Jean-Francois," Ben said. "I've still got a little mopping up to do, and then we can put this behind us."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Abdullah El Farrar is still at large, and I will need to see to it that he causes no more mischief before I'll consider the episode finished," Ben said.

"Good luck and good hunting, Ben," Chapelle said before signing off.

"Corrie," Ben said after she'd disconnected from Chapelle. "You have one more call to make. Get me Jackie Malone on the horn. I want to make a date with her to call on El Farrar as soon as possible."

Ben gathered his team together in the ready room of his headquarters building. Everyone was present except for Buddy and Jersey, who'd had to be sedated when she was told she wouldn't be able to accompany them on this next mission.

"Get your gear together, men and ladies," Ben said. "We're gonna make a call on the man who started this mess and make sure he pays for his deeds."

"Full parachute gear, Ben?" Harley asked, his teeth bared in a savage grin.

292.

"Yeah. The quickest way to get to him is to make a drop outside the city of Dhahran just before dusk. I'm sure he's got the airport guarded, so we'll just drop in unannounced and surprise him.

"Oh, and Jackie Malone and Commander Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth have asked to join us, so they'll be coming in from Riyadh at the same time. We'reto rendezvous five miles west of the Dhahran Airport."

"Sounds like a great party," Coop said. "Too bad Jerse and Buddy won't get to attend."

"They'll be with us in spirit," Ben said, and he got to his feet and led the team from the room.

293.

Jackie Malone checked her GPS instrument, and saw that she was at the exact coordinates Ben had given her when they made arrangements to meet in the desert outside Dhahran.

It was just after dark, and she could see nothing in the scant starlight. Bartholomew Wiley-Smeyth, his aide, Sergeant Major Alphonse Green, and the Davidson brothers were with her.

She gave a low whistle, and was relieved when it was answered from a dozen yards away.

Soon, Ben and his team, along with Major Jackson Bean, Willie Running Bear, Samuel Clements, and Sue Waters, appeared out of the darkness.

Jackie grinned and shook hands with Ben. "Boy," she said, looking around at the men and women in the group. "This is like old-home week."

"Do you think we have enough men, Ben?" Bart asked.

Ben nodded. "Yeah. Our Intel says there's no sign of a significant number of men here with El Farrar in Dhahran. My guess is he kept just his personal guards and enough men and equipment to hold the airport and protect his jet."

"Any idea where he's holed up?" Jackie asked.

"No, but it's got to be near the airport," Ben answered.

294.

"He wouldn't want to get too far away from his jet in case things went bad for him."

Ben turned and looked toward the airport lights, a few miles away. They appeared closer in the thin desert air. "Let's spread out in a line and move toward the airport. Be careful. We don't know where the sentries he'll have posted are."

Harley and Anna moved off together, as did Hammer and Beth. Coop moved next to Corrie. "Mind if I tag along with you?" he asked.

She glanced down at his leg, noticing he was still limping on it. "How's the ankle?" she asked, adjusting the straps on the portable SOHFRAD on her back.

"The medic double-taped it for the jump, so it ought to be okay," he replied, not mentioning the pain that stabbed up his leg with every step.

The rest of the group moved off in teams of two, and made their way toward the airport lights. Dressed all in black with black greasepainton their faces, they were almost invisible from only a few yards away.

Since they had to move slowly and be on the lookout for sentries, it took them almost an hour to walk the three or so miles to the outskirts of the airport.

As they crouched just outside the light cast by the runway spotlights, they could see teams of men patrolling the runways, and several armed men in the control tower across the way.

Ben pointed to each of the sentries one at a time, and then to a team that he wanted to take them out. All of the Scouts' guns were silenced, so there wouldn't be any noise, but when the men went down, the guards in the control tower were sure to notice.

295.

295.

"We hit the runway guards in five minutes from . . . now," Ben said. He pointed to Harley and Anna. "You two take out the control tower thirty seconds later. Make sure you get the radio antenna so they can't warn anyone of the attack."

Harley Reno and Anna moved over until they were directly across from the control tower, and squatted as close to the runway as they could get without being in the light.

When the other teams began to take out the guards, Harley and Reno jumped up and sprinted as fast as they could across the two runways between them and the control tower.

Abu Sayyaf, the lieutenant in charge of the night-shift guards, was in the corner of the control tower pouring himself a cup of coffee when one of the guards in the tower yelled, "Abu, come here!"

Sayyaf cursed when the man's yell caused him to pour hot coffee on his hand.

"What is it, Essar?" he exclaimed irritably, wiping his hand on his pants and moving to the window overlooking the airfield.

"Look there!" Essar cried, pointing at the men patrolling the runways.

The men were grabbing themselves and falling to the ground as limp as rag dolls.

"What the ... ?" Sayyaf said. The men appeared to have been shot, but he heard no sounds of gunfire.

His attention was caught by two figures running across the runways toward the control tower. They were dressed all in black and looked to be carrying rifles.

"In the name of Allah, we're being attacked!" Sayyaf yelled, turning to the radio to call and warn El Farrar.

The two running figures suddenly dropped, kneeling 296on one knee as they pointed their weapons at the control tower windows.

Though no sound came from their weapons, the tower windows shattered under the onslaught of hundreds of bullets.

Essar, standing by the window, was riddled with slugs and whirled around, his uniform covered with blood.

Sayyaf frantically keyed the microphone, but heard only static as the desk the radio was on suddenly exploded into splinters as steel-jacketed slugs tore into it.

Sayyaf threw the microphone down and reached for his Kalashnikov, standing in a corner.

He stumbled, feeling as if he'd been kicked in the back by a mule, and fell to the floor. He glanced down and saw red stains appearing on his tunic, and then the pain came, like molten lead being poured on his skin.

He had time to scream once, before blackness opened up in front of him and he dived in.

Once the airport was secure, Ben gathered his team and had a conference.

"Now, we've got to find which of the buildings near the airport El Farrar is using as his headquarters."

Jackie nodded. "Spread out and each of you teams take a different building. Report back on your headsets to the others if you find a building with sentries."

Muhammad Atwa, unable to sleep, was standing on the balcony outside his bedroom, sipping a scotch whiskey and smoking a cigar. Both activities were considered sins in the Muslim religion, but Atwa didn't care. His meeting with El Farrar earlier had left him with lots of things to 297.

297.

worry about, and the smoke and the scotch helped to calm his nerves.

He almost dropped his whiskey when he happened to glance toward the control tower of the airport, a few hundred yards away, and saw the windows disintegrating and the flash of what could only be small-arms fire from the runways.

He heard no gunshots, but he knew what was happening. Their base was under attack.

He ran back into the bedroom and threw on his robes and clothes as fast as he could. He knew there was precious little time before the attackers found their headquarters building.

As soon as he was dressed, he ran down the hall and banged on El Farrar's door.

"Abdullah, wake up!" he screamed.

The door opened and a sleepy El Farrar glared out at him. "What is it, Muhammad? Bad dreams?" El Farrar asked sarcastically as he rubbed his eyes."The airport! We're under attack!" Atwa yelled, pushing past El Farrar into his bedroom. "Wake up the guards!"

El Farrar came instantly awake. He moved quickly to the phone on a desk in the middle of the room and dialed a number. Speaking rapidly, he alerted the guards of the situation and ordered them to take up defensive positions in the building at once.

He hung up the phone and moved without speaking to his closet. Instead of El Farrar putting on his uniform, Atwa noticed he dressed in civilian clothes-the robes and headdress of a typical Saudi citizen.

Once he was dressed, El Farrar took a suitcase from the back of his closet and threw it on the bed.

298.

"What are you doing?" Atwa asked. "We don't have time to pack."

El Farrar smiled grimly. "The suitcase is already packed, my friend. It has bearer bonds in it worth five million dollars."

"But, what. . ." Atwa started to ask, until he saw the pistol suddenly appear in El Farrar's hand.

"I'm sorry, Muhammad," El Farrar said. "You've been a good and loyal friend, but I only have enough for one."

Atwa whirled and dove for the door just as El Farrar fired. The bullet entered Atwa's back just to the right of his spine and threw him facedown on the floor.

El Farrar picked up the suitcase and hurried down the hall toward a back stairway. He had no intention of staying and fighting. Much better to run away and live to fight another day, he thought to himself as he made his way down the stairs and out a side door of the building into the darkness.

Coop, who was walking toward the building when the lights came on and a shot rang out, immediately notified the other teams of the building's location.

Within minutes, the building was surrounded and the teams were trading fire with the guards that seemed to be at every window.

A lone figure scurried from the side of the building and ran up a dark street just as the first shots began.

Coop saw the man escape, and made his way down the line of Scouts until he came to Ben.

After he quickly explained what he'd seen, Ben grinned, his teeth gleaming in the starlight. "I think the head rat is abandoning his ship," he growled.

"Jackie," he said to Malone, who was lying next to him firing into the second-story windows. "Take over 299here," he ordered, and he ran off into the darkness after the fleeing figure.

It didn't take too long for the Scouts under Jackie's leadership to take out most of the guards in the building. Once the murderous fire of the Scouts' automatic weapons had pinned down the guards, Willie Running Bear and Sue Waters ran to the main door.

Running Bear kicked the door in, and Sue lobbed a couple of fragmentation grenades into the first floor. When they went off, killing the guards there and filling the stairway with billowing smoke, it was only a matter of a few minutes before the guards that were left alive on the upper floors threw down their weapons and surrendered.

As the defeated men filed out of the building, Coop and Harley and Hammer Hammerick rushed up the stairs to make sure the building was cleared.

Coop entered the room that El Farrar had used as his office, and found Muhammad Atwa laying in a pool of blood. Since he was the only wounded man in the building who wasn't in uniform, Coop called down to Jackie that she should come up.

Jackie kneeled next to the wounded man and rolled him over. Atwa coughed and spewed blood from his lips, indicating he had a lung wound.