exhale, then paused as if he sensed danger. He squinted ahead, straining his eyes to try to see into the void outside of the bright lights of the compound. Before registering the danger he was in, the guard was ripped into the shadows. No sound was heard, no screams of pain created, no indication of any kind that would let the compound know the darkness had eaten one member of a terrorist organization. The last inclination of the guard was the ember from his cigarette being extinguished under Smoke’s boot.
Another three guards were removed from their posts without incident, and through two different doors, all eight of the operators entered the compound. While it might’ve shocked those untrained in the world of warfare, finding such little resistance getting into a place that held a terrorist mastermind wasn’t all that difficult, especially when coming in through the back door. Those people lived on the show of force, and they rarely kept that force in the appropriate rings needed to prevent events like the mission Smoke’s team was on.
Once the team was inside, the percentage of things that could go wrong increased extraordinarily — a random person going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, an unknown dog inside barking, home décor items bumped and crashing down, going into the wrong room or even the correct room but the target not being there. The list of things that could go wrong was unfathomable, so it was the team leader’s job to work through any of those scenarios in advance, like a well-written what if game. They had to be willing to readjust a thousand times if needed.
Each group of four went about completing their singular missions. Smoke and Myer walked the halls slowly, ensuring the path was clear for Brulenski and Osborne. Beecher and Jones followed Wells and McPherson down another wing. Unison steps kept down the noise and allowed everyone to maintain a perfect symmetry in spacing. Every step brought them closer to their target and safely getting out of the compound.
At the location they anticipated the terrorist leader to be, Smoke and Myer slowly opened the door and entered virtually soundless. Through the night vision optics, they saw at least three bodies in a bed — two of them women. Smoke walked to the opposite side of the bed from the women and saw the target they were to capture. Smoke snaked his arm around the man’s neck, locked it under his chin, and had him out of bed in a nanosecond. The man swung his limbs wildly as he tried to scream, no sound escaping as his voice box was cut off.
His foot swung out and kicked the bed, the commotion waking up the two women who’d slept through the initial capture. They looked confused for a moment, and then one of the two women jumped from the bed and started to run for the door. Instead, she hit the dresser and knocked herself out cold. The remaining woman stayed frozen in place in the middle of the bed.
She opened her mouth to scream, but before a sound could emanate from her, they put her under. They had no need to take out the women. They just needed to make sure they slept long enough for the team to be long gone by the time they awoke and began screaming.
The terrorist continued to fight with all he had, but he was no match for Smoke. It didn’t take long for the fight to leave the man, his blood and oxygen flow to his brain constricted under the massive hold Smoke had across his neck. Before death was reached, Smoke relaxed his grip, slid out a vile containing a sleeping agent, stuck the man in the neck, and held tight while the prisoner slumped against him. He’d have to carry the damn man out of the compound. That would be a barrel of fun.
Wells and McPherson held sentry positions while Beecher and Jones ransacked the room filled with computers and electronics. They were responsible for acquiring all of the data containers they could carry — hard drives, USB sticks, floppy drives, anything that possibly held data. While they did their best to work in silence, the collection of the data started the event they’d wanted to avoid — a firefight.
A singular guard came into the house and heard shuffling coming from the computer room, then turned the corner to see Wells and McPherson. The guard’s eyes widened at