Riding the Red Horse (6 page)

The radio crackled to life in LCDR Bringle’s headset. Mounted just forward of his ears, it used bone conduction technology to allow him to hear without putting plugs in his ears. “Knight 01, this is Shadow,” called an aviator on the reconnaissance aircraft orbiting high overhead. “Standing by with a situation report.”

“This is Knight 01,” Bringle’s CO replied, “go ahead with your sitrep.”

“There are several hundred high value units in some sort of guarded pen system on the north end of the village. The rest of the town is quiet; we’ve only seen a few people moving around in the last hour. There are manned sentry positions on the north, south, east and west sides of the village. All positions have 2-3 hostiles and a vehicle with a mounted machine gun. Over.”

“Knight 01 copies all. Do you have a location on the primary target?”

“Shadow hasn’t seen the primary target, but there were a lot of people coming and going earlier from the headquarters building. It looked like they were coming to report to someone there.”

“Knight copies. We’re on schedule. Assault begins in one hour. Keep an eye out for us. Knight 01 out.”

“Wilco,” replied the aviator, to indicate he would comply. “Shadow out.”

“Okay,” said Bringle to Mr. Jones. “Everything’s on track. It’s almost 0230 now; we’ve got time to brief the troops and get into position. The assault begins at 0330.”

“Stand by,” said the CO’s voice in all of the Gold Knights’ headsets. “On my mark. Three. Two. One. Mark.” Ten suppressed McMillan TAC-338 sniper rifles coughed quietly.

On the west side of the village, the two sentries crumpled to the ground as the .338 Lapua Magnum rounds hit them. Stars blossomed in the window of the technical, and the two terrorists sitting in it died. Ten meters away, their machine gunner died quietly where he had gone to relieve himself.

The five terrorists on the north end of town also died silently, although one wasn’t a clean kill, and he flopped around on the ground for a few seconds. The terrorist had been reaching for a cigarette just as the trigger had been pulled and he was fatally wounded rather than killed outright. But one of the sniper rifles coughed again, and the man stopped moving.

LCDR Bringle watched through his four-tube night-vision goggles as the terrorists on the west side of town fell. “All right, Master Chief,” he said, “let’s go kill some bad guys.”

Master Chief Rowntree gave the signal, and the assault force started forward, Ben in the lead. With a sense of smell 40 times greater than the humans, the Belgian Malinois could detect and identify explosives as well as hidden terrorists. Outfitted with his own night-vision goggles, Ben also had an infrared capability that let him see human heat forms through some walls.

“Homey, Higgy, check the bodies,” Rowntree transmitted. Petty Officer Steve Holm and Petty Officer Michael Higuchi moved to comply.

“Bad news,” transmitted Petty Officer Higuchi, looking inside the technical. “They have radios. We’ll have to hurry; at some point, they’ll be missed.”

The assault force approached the village, all their senses on edge. Before they could reach the first mud hut, though, Ben alerted. Petty Officer Stevens, their explosive ordnance disposal expert, moved forward. “There’s some sort of IED in the middle of the road,” he said. “Stay to the sides and you’ll be all right.”

The troop split in two to avoid the improvised explosive device and continued toward the village, reaching the first houses. The village was dark. There were no street lights, and electricity was still just a concept to the villagers. None of the windows they could see had any light showing through them.

“Knight 02, Knight 01,” called the CO. “We have the package,” he said, indicating they had secured the corrals with the women in them.

“Roger,” replied LCDR Bringle, Knight 02. “We are entering the village. All quiet.”

The first ranks moved into town, staying to the sides of the dirt street. Typical of the area, the locals lived in mud houses with thatched roofs. All were single story, and most of them were only one or two rooms. Large iroko trees grew between every house or two, casting shadows that seemed to move in the moonlight.

“Shadow, Knight 01,” the CO called. “Are you in communication with Taxi?” he asked, referring to the large open-backed trucks that were to take the women to the city of Gamawa once they reached the extraction point. Led by the other members of Mr. Jones’ group, the ten trucks were waiting several miles away where their motors wouldn’t be heard across the plains.

“Knight, Shadow,” replied the aviator, “that is affirmative. They are waiting at the extraction point.”

“Roger. Please let them know that we need them to rendezvous with us here. We have too many injured to evac.”

“Roger, Knight 01, we’ll send them your way.”

“Thanks, Knight out.”

The troop advanced another block and arrived at the headquarters building, which sat on the west side of a small square. The building was obviously important, as it was the only one that was illuminated, the only one made out of modern building materials, and the only one that was two stories. Several vehicles waited out front, including two with mounted machine guns. Master Chief Rowntree could hear a humming from behind the house that was probably the generator powering the lights.

A light flared in front of the building as a man lit a cigarette. The troop froze in the shadows.

“Knight 02, Shadow, be advised the terrorists know something is on. The sentries at both the south and east ends just went to a higher state of vigilance. Movement! The technical at the east end of town just started up and is headed toward your position.”

Shit, thought Rowntree. “Richardson, take the smoker in front of the building,” he ordered. “Jenkins, there’s a technical incoming from the east. Get ready to take it out. Snipers, be prepared to kill the occupants.”

Petty Officer Jenkins could see the jeep coming through the night scope of his .50 caliber M82 Barrett rifle, and he focused on its engine block. The one sniper that Rowntree hadn’t used in the first attack, Jenkins was armed with a rifle was both anti-personnel and anti-material; it could easily penetrate the jeep’s hood and disrupt its motor.

Rowntree heard a cough and saw the man in front of the building fall. The technical was now a block away, coming slowly through the dirt streets.

“Standby…standby…now!” Rowntree said, and the snipers fired. The technical’s motor and occupants died at the same time, and it coasted unmanned toward one of the mud houses across from the headquarters building. Two of the SEALs ran forward and put shoulders to it, stopping it before it could crash into the house. They checked the vehicle’s occupants; all three were dead.

Bang-Bang-Bang!-Bang!-Bang!
A rifle on full automatic fired from one of the windows of the headquarters building, and bullets ricocheted off of the technical and whined into the night. Not all of them missed; one hit Petty Officer Higuchi, and he spun around and fell to the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang-Bang-Bang!
A second rifle joined the first, and Petty Officer Evans dove behind the vehicle for cover.

“They know we’re here,” said Rowntree. “Light ‘em up!”

Twelve Heckler and Koch MP7 submachine guns returned fire into the building, along with several of the sniper rifles, and fire from the building soon ceased. Petty Officer Burton ran up to the building from the side and tossed a grenade through the broken glass of a window. “Fire in the hole!” he called as he ducked back around the side of the house. The grenade detonated, blowing out the remainder of the glass.

Master Chief Rowntree scanned the buildings around the square and saw movement from several of them. “Alpha squad, take the building. Bravo squad, find cover and watch for terrorists in the nearby buildings and the streets. Rogers, rig the vehicles out front for demo. We’ll blow them when we leave.”

A TAC-338 sniper rifle coughed. “Hostile down,” said Petty Officer Holm.

Alpha Squad stacked at the front door of the building and indicated their readiness. “Fire in the hole,” called Petty Officer Parker, flipping a stun grenade through one of the broken windows. The flashbang detonated and Alpha Squad surged through the door. One MP7 fired a quick burst, and then it was quiet. As the squad moved toward the stairs they could hear rifle fire from outside the building, and they knew they needed to hurry.

“Knights, Shadow, be advised they just called in the sentries. There is a technical inbound from the south and terrorists coming from the south and east.”

Chief Petty Officer Bill Mayes, Alpha Squad’s leader, jogged to the stairwell and peeked around the corner, but withdrew his head as gunfire from above filled the stairway wall with holes.

“Need a grenade here, Barnard,” said Mayes.

As Petty Officer Barnard went to join Chief Mayes, Petty Officer Stevens and Petty Officer Rodriguez documented the men they had killed. Stevens pulled out his camera and tried to match the dead men’s faces with the known Boko Haram leaders, but didn’t find them. He snapped a picture of each corpse, while Petty Officer Rodriguez took DNA samples from the men for further analysis.

“Angle a grenade up the stairs,” instructed Mayes. “There’s two of them at the top.”

“Got it, Chief,” said Barnard. He leaned in and fired a 40mm grenade up the stairs with his M203 launcher.

The grenade bounced off the wall and detonated. Mayes stuck his head into the stairwell, but neither man was visible at the top of the steps. Steeling himself, he said, “Let’s go!” and ran up the stairs, two at a time. Reaching the top, he saw that the two men were both wounded and stunned. He put a burst of 4.6mm rounds from his MP7 into each of them, and they stopped moving. A door slammed, and he looked up. There were only two doors on the hallway; the further one had just closed.

Mayes indicated there was someone behind the second door. Watching it, he sent Barnard and Parker through the closer one.

“Shit,” said Petty Officer Barnard, who was the first through the door. The room was small, just barely big enough to hold the two beds that were in it. A young woman was tied naked to each bed, and both women showed multiple signs of having been abused, in addition to being blindfolded and gagged. No one else was in the room. “I’ll cut ‘em loose,” said Barnard, who had first aid supplies in his kit. “You go help Chief.”

Petty Officer Parker went back into the hallway and found Petty Officer Stevens and Petty Officer Rodriguez cataloguing the two dead terrorists. Stevens looked up. “Hey, Chief, it looks like these are Akintola and Balewa, the two lieutenants.”

“Then that just leaves Shekau in the other room,” replied Chief Mayes. The men advanced to the other door. “Locked,” said Mayes after trying the handle.

“Got it,” said Petty Officer Parker, pulling out a roll of detonating cord. He looped some around the door handle and along the door jamb. The men moved back and Chief Mayes nodded.

Parker fired the detonator and the det cord blew off the door handle and blasted in the door.

Chief Mayes led his troops to the door, gun at his shoulder, ready to fire. As he came around the corner, he spotted a man holding two women in front of him, a pistol to each of their heads.

Seeing Chief Mayes, the man said something in his native language of Hausa, and then he added, “I kill, I kill!”

“Not if I kill you first,” said Chief Mayes. He didn’t know whether Shekau was threatening to kill him or the two women; he also didn’t care. He fired once, putting a bullet through Shekau’s forehead. Both women screamed as Shekau fell backward.

“Parker, take care of the women and get them downstairs. Stevens, Rodriguez, get him into the database and let’s get the hell out of here.”

A new sound joined the gunfight out front. Until now, Mayes had only heard the sounds of the terrorists’ assault rifles; now a big machine gun joined the fight. It fired on full automatic with its distinctive
“chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk”
sound. “Someone’s got a .50 cal,” he said. “We better hurry.”

Alpha Squad ran down the stairs. A second burst of machine gun fire followed the first, and then everything went quiet outside. Chief Mayes came out of the headquarters building to find Master Chief Rowntree standing in one of the terrorists’ vehicles, manning the .50 caliber machine gun mounted to it. A wisp of smoke trailed from the barrel as he tracked it back and forth across the surrounding houses. Two of the houses were full of holes and looked like they might fall down at any minute. The technical from the southern sentry position had crashed into a house across the square and was smoking.

“We got Shekau and his two lieutenants,” said Chief Mayes, reporting in. “We also recovered a few more of the women; they were in bad shape.” He pointed at the machine gun. “Taking a little target practice?”

“They didn’t realize how serious we were,” said Rowntree. “I just thought I’d show them.”

“Shadow, Knight 02,” radioed LCDR Bringle from the cover of the next vehicle. “We are mission complete and headed to Knight 01’s position. What does the road look like between here and there?”

“Knight 01 is three blocks north of your position,” replied the aviator. “We don’t see anything in between. I think they’re keeping their heads down after that last burst of .50 cal.”

“Let’s go join the CO,” said LCDR Bringle. “Move ‘em out, Master Chief.”

“All right Gold Knights, we’re not getting paid by the hour,” transmitted Rowntree. “Miller and Reid, you’ve got point with Ben. Let’s move.”

The troop advanced up the north road. The two named petty officers led the way with the combat assault dog, one on each side of the street. Most of the able-bodied troops followed them, with the wounded in trail. In addition to Petty Officer Higuchi, who had been hit in the shoulder, Petty Officer Fields had a minor leg wound and Petty Officer Sparks had been hit in the arm. The bullet that hit Sparks had broken his right humerus and his arm was in a sling, so he was down to just the HK45CT pistol in his left hand.

“Hey, Master Chief,” transmitted Chief Petty Officer Reese, who was in the trail position at the back of the formation, “they’re getting bold back here. Looks like they’re manning up the jeeps to come after us.”