Savage Son (James Reece #3) - Jack Carr Page 0,117

Combat Uniform (PCU), was developed by the Army’s Natick Soldier Systems Center with input from alpine climbing legend and Gym Jones founder Mark Twight, and manufactured by Patagonia. White and gray splotched MultiCam Alpine combat overwhites completed the ensemble, topped off with body armor before donning specially designed HAHO gray synthetic thermal suits that would be discarded once they hit the ground.

Farkus received a weather update from the cockpit that he used to make his final navigational calculations. The Gulfstream was indicating winds from 250 degrees at 40 mph, which matched the earlier forecast and gave him confidence that the report was accurate. They would be at the absolute limits in terms of their gliding distance to the target. If the winds shifted or, worse, reversed, they would find themselves in the icy Bering Sea, dead within minutes. Farkus reinspected each man’s gear, physically running his hands across every strap, every buckle, every seam; there would be no second chances.

Route R220 ran parallel to Russia’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ. It was important to stick to established commercial airline routes when making a covert insertion into denied territory. If they deviated too far from the official route, Russian radar operators monitoring the Petropavlovsk/Kamchatsky airspace would take note of their location and alert interceptor aircraft based in Magadan. A MiG-31 could shoot down the Gulfstream from two hundred miles away. To avoid that disaster, the pilots only allowed their course to divert slightly from the center of the route, putting them at the absolute edge of the ADIZ, 48.5 miles from the tip of Medny Island.

Devan let Edo walk among the operators, sniffing and saying hello. The dog handler wanted Edo to know the difference between friend and foe if he was given the command to bite.

Using the buddy system, the band of mercenaries donned parachutes with ATAK, or Android Tactical Assault Kits, in a chest-mounted Juggernaut Navigation Board MFF-T2 with backup Garmin Foretrex GPS and Oceanic compass in case the primary system failed. The ATAK was a military-specific smartphone app that provided users with real-time geospatial situational awareness, communication, navigation, and targeting information. Their weapons had been fitted with tape to hold down anything they didn’t want flying off in the violence of exiting an aircraft moving at 500 miles per hour. The muzzle, ejector port, hand guard, optics, laser, and magazine all had riggers’ tape adhering them to the rifles, which were mounted horizontally across their waists. Reece had the added benefit of having the Echols Legend strapped vertically to his right side in a padded case with foam taped around the scope. Just in case.

Weapons were strapped to jump harnesses, and with a final check of NODs, helmets were secured in place, oxygen masks dangling to the sides. The G550 was flying at 35,000 feet but the cabin was pressurized for 8,000. An hour out from the drop, the cabin pressure was adjusted to 10,000 feet. The commandos took their seats and plugged into a supplemental O2 unit on the floor of the aircraft. Resembling a large Pelican case with dials and knobs that looked foreign to Reece, it allowed the jumpers to breathe 100 percent oxygen without depleting the small green tanks strapped to their chests. Edo had a nasal cannula rigged inside his muzzle. Reece always wondered how much O2 the dogs were actually getting.

Decompression sickness, otherwise known as “the bends,” is an ailment usually associated with scuba diving, but the risks of such a physiological event are equally as great during high-altitude parachute jumps. Residual nitrogen in the bloodstream can, upon descent, turn into bubbles that can migrate throughout the body and cause pain, paralysis, and death. To prevent the onset of decompression sickness, they pre-breathed for an hour. Any nitrogen remaining in their bodies, even any ingested while switching oxygen tanks, could be deadly.

The exercise of breathing pure oxygen prior to exiting the aircraft allowed them to get into the zone, running through the contingencies of the complex mission. Reece reviewed METT-TC: Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops Available, Time, and Civilian Considerations. The mission was clear: find Raife and rescue Hanna. Enemy: the target package from the Agency briefing [Redacted] estimated that Aleksandr had a security detail of no more than ten private contractors. Terrain: mountainous, harsh, and cold. Troops Available: Reece looked around the plane at his assault force. Five plus a dog. Time: if they made it in without detection, they would have four hours to complete the mission and make it