Lady Death by Brian Drake (good e books to read .TXT) 📕

15

The crescent-shaped cove looked about two miles across with no beach in which to run the CCV aground. The cove ended at a cliff face 50 feet high. Raven and Hayden did not have climbing gear. To the left of the cove was a rough patch of ground leading up to the top. They’d get a workout but there was no other way unless they found another entry point.

Ocean waves entered the cove at several angles. The waves rocked the boat to-and-fro as Hayden steered left. As the port bow bumped against the edge of the shore, Raven leaped out. He tied a nylon rope around a large boulder. Didn’t matter if it held. They wouldn’t use the CCV for escape. They only needed the rope to hold a few moments.

Fisher had arranged backup. Within four hours they wouldn’t be the only Americans on the island. The USS Abraham Lincoln, from the US Sixth Fleet, was on the way from the Mediterranean. The carrier not only had F-18s on stand-by, but also two Black Hawks full of SEALs.

Raven and Hayden had a simple task. Locate Tanya. Terminate when the cavalry arrived. Hayden jumped off the boat and joined Raven. Each man carried a US M4 rifle, with suppressor, along with a combat harness containing a variety of grenades and spare magazines. Wireless com units fitted into their right ears. Spare magazines, combat knives, and their personal pistols completed the rig. Small packs on their backs carried more ammunition magazines. The packs also contained their night vision gear. Shedding the packs, they removed the Sinister 509 XL6s Hayden had scrounged before leaving Antwerp. The goggles fit over their eyes like a diver’s mask and amplified the starlight. The darkness took on a greenish glow.

The surf crashed at high volume on all sides. Raven took point up the rise. The hard-packed volcanic soil gave way to a flat top. A clear stretch of soil provided a road to follow. On the opposite side, a line of lush trees. Raven spotted tire tracks. The wheelbase was too narrow for a pick-up. Tanya’s crew used ATVs. The tracks went to the edge of the cliff and back.

“Stay by the trees and follow this road,” Raven said.

“Gonna be a long march.”

“We better get started.”

Raven and Hayden crossed the open road to the tree line. They walked upright but with a ten-foot gap between them. Raven remained point man. They’d see an ATV patrol before hearing the vehicle. The rider would need his headlamp. But they had no idea of the patrol routine or how many troops they’d encounter.

They continued their advance. The road forked further on, the branch leading down a slope to a beach. They ignored the fork. The sea breeze ruffled the tree leaves above. It was almost too peaceful a place to have a fight. At any other time, Raven would have found the island the perfect place for R&R.

Not this time.

Presently a bright light flashed in the distance. “Down!” Raven said. He dropped behind a mound of grass while Hayden broke across the road to a small gully.

The ATV headlamp became larger as the vehicle approached. There was only one with a single rider. Raven readied his M4. He poked the barrel through the top of the grass. And waited.

The sound of the motor didn’t overpower the ocean. The rider continued his approach, and once his torso filled Raven’s gun sight, the M4 whispered once.

He never saw the rider’s face but watched the man’s body stiffen and pitch over the side. The back wheels rolled over the trooper’s body. The ATV veered left, up a short rise, and rolled back. It stopped against the rider’s body.

Raven ran to the ATV and started to turn it back the way the rider had come when Hayden told him to stop.

“Got another,” the CIA man said.

Raven cut off the motor and pushed the ATV into the trees. He dropped beside it with the M4 at the ready.

The second rider stopped ten yards from Raven. He turned on a hand-held light and shined it back and forth. The light stopped at the body of the first rider. He started to get off the ATV but didn’t make it. Raven and Hayden fired at the same time. The second rider collapsed and lay still.

“One for each of us,” Hayden said. He left the gully and ran to the second ATV as Raven pulled the first out of the trees. They followed the tracks at a moderate speed.

They had a general idea of their final destination from the satellite pictures. A cottage sat on a hill on the upper left point of the T. The cottage overlooked a cluster of buildings in a small valley. Barracks, they assumed. Over a rise behind the buildings, level with the ocean, was an airstrip. A road twisted through the landscape connecting the strip to the cottage. The road they followed also branched off to connect with the cottage. They expected to find Tanya inside.

Bushy terrain near the cottage would hide them from the barracks in the valley. All they had to do was wait for the Navy and then kill Tanya Jafari. Two shots center mass seemed about right. Raven didn’t want to waste time talking to her. He wouldn’t miss. Hayden’s target was Omar Talman, Tanya’s lover, the man who’d slaughtered CIA personnel at the Blue Ridge black site.

They rode for several miles until the trees thinned out. Overgrowth and open soil replaced the trees. They stopped the ATV before the end of the trees and made the rest of the way on foot. When they found the branch leading to the cottage, they moved fast through the overgrowth. The downward slope of the road didn’t slow them down, though Raven was careful not to slip on loose soil. On either side of the road, a down slope led to more grass and rocks. He stopped midway to take up a security scan while Hayden moved forward.