Target Deck - 02 (65 page)
Authors: Jack Murphy
With the fall of Rhodesia and the expansion of the communist menace, the South Africans weren't taking any chances. That was where Josef came in.
Frail and underweight from years of captivity, Josef looked up at the two white men as he sat with his back against the wall. Were they liberators or murderers? Hard to tell.
“Tell us your mother's name,” one of them demanded, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. This one's accent was Australian, he was sure of it.
“Your mother's name dickhead!” The other sounded American.
“Phelisa,” Josef croaked.
“Where were you born?” the American asked.
“Bisho.”
The American pulled out a key ring and quickly located the appropriate key while the larger Australian kept an eye out for armed guards. Swinging the barred door open, the paramilitary soldier reached in and helped Josef to his feet.
“He sounds like a fair dinkum,” the Aussie said.
“You stay with me, you do what I do,” the American told Josef. “If you so much as shit your pants without me giving you permission first and I will put a bullet in the back of your fucking head. Understand?”
Josef nodded.
What else could he do?
The next few minutes were a blur as the two black-clad gunmen half dragged, half carried Josef through the prison, shooting their way out as several guards gave a half-hearted attempt to prevent them from escaping. After the quick exchange of gunfire, both guards threw down their weapons and made a run for it. Dying was simply outside their paygrade.
Walking right out the front door of Middledrift Prison, the three of them stood silently as police sirens sounded in the distance. Headlights flashed and a white van ground to a halt in front of them. Flinging open the side door, the two commandos pushed Josef inside and piled in behind him. Before they had the door closed the driver stomped on the gas and accelerated down the street.
Their driver made the first right hand turn they came to. A half dozen police cars missed them by a margin of several seconds as the police vehicles skidded to a halt in front of the prison.
Josef was handcuffed, gagged, and blindfolded before being laid down on the floor of the van. The prisoner needed to safeguarded at all costs. A lot of people had a lot riding on him tonight.
“Don't move,” Sean Deckard ordered the political dissident as he yanked off his balaclava.
“Are we clear?” Robin asked from the driver's seat.
“I think so,” James responded, tugging off his own mask to reveal a massive caterpillar of a mustache on his upper lip. “Looks like we lost them.”
Sean dropped a half empty magazine from his AK, topping it off with a fresh one from his chest rig. Golden light flashed through the van as Robin gunned it down a labyrinth of side streets. They had a long drive to their destination, and he knew it was going to be an even longer night.
For years he'd been fighting one war after another. From Vietnam, to Laos, to Cambodia, Rhodesia, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, and now in South Africa he plied the ancient trade of soldiering whenever and wherever he could, but tonight would be different.
Tonight he was fighting to prevent a war.
If he failed, the resulting genocide would make Mugabe's reign over Zimbabwe look like a walk in the park.
Holding on tight, Robin nearly balanced the van on two wheels as he rounded a corner and sped off into the darkness.
Also by Jack Murphy:
The PROMIS series:
PROMIS: Lebanon (forthcoming)
The Deckard series:
Target Deck
Direct Action (forthcoming)
Non-Fiction
US Special Forces: Weapons Report Card
Acknowledgements:
Where to even begin...
You start off writing a novel thinking that it will be a solitary process, you sitting by yourself in a corner somewhere smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey while you pound out your manifesto on a laptop. The reality is that writing a book like this is much more collaborative than I ever would have thought.
If I were to judge Target Deck by its cover I would give it an A+ and that is thanks to my awesome cover artist Marc Lee. He knocked it out of the park once again. Now if you didn't find the content of the book as inspiring as the cover, well, please don't blame Marc for the errors of my ways.
I also want to thank Ted and Laura K. for putting eyeballs on the text of the book and slogging through my butchering of the English language. Thanks so much for your patience with me! I'd like to thank Uri for consulting on some of the technical aspects of the book. Brandon Webb gets a huge shout out for giving me a job at SOFREP.com and providing me with lots of great advice about publishing. I also want to thank Dan Tharp, Chris Martin, Iassen Donov, Federico, Rob, Peter Nealen, Hank Brown, Laura W., John Meyer, Jack Badelaire, Jack Silkstone, Blake Miles, and many others who cannot be mentioned here for your friendship and support.
As always, I need to thank and apologize to my wife, Caterina. Sorry that this whole writing deal turns me into an anti-social hermit for long periods of time honey.
Glossary
.300 WinMag: Sniper rifle chambered for the .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge.
.410 shotgun shell: Smallest size shotgun cartridge which is about the same width as a .45 caliber bullet
160th Special Operations Aviation: Helicopter aviation unit composed of the world's most highly trained pilots and flight crews who fly Special Operations troops where they need to go on combat operations
1911: .45 Caliber pistol
40mm grenade: A grenade fired from a grenade launcher rather than thrown by hand. One type is fired from the M203 under-barrel grenade launcher and another type is fired by the MK-19.
550 chord: Parachute line, also used by soldiers to tie down equipment and just about everything else you can think of
AC-130: Aerial gunship
AG: Assistant Gunner, carries ammunition, spare barrels, and tripod for a machine gunner or extra ammunition for a recoiless rifle gunner. Also preforms reloading duties.
AK: See AK-47
AK-103: An updated form of the AK-47 rifle that can be fitted with a variety of different optics.
AK-47: Avtomat Kalashnikova-1947, following the standard Soviet weapons naming convention. Avtomat meaning the type of rifle: automatic. Kalashnikov comes from the last name of the inventor, Mikhail Kalashnikov and the year 1947 is when the rifle went into production. The AK-47 is the world's most ubiquitous battle rifle, having been used in virtually every conflict since the Cold War.
AMIZ: Academia Militarizada Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican police academy
An-124: Large Russian-made cargo airplane
API: Armor Piercing Incendiary ammunition
Arystan: Kazakh Anti-Terror unit
AT4: US military single shot anti-tank rocket
Barret: .50 caliber anti-material rifle
BMP: Russian tracked armored vehicle
BRDM: Russian made four or eight wheeled armored vehicle
C4: Composition Four, military grade plastic explosives
Camelbak: Plastic bladder used to carry water in, commonly carried on a soldiers back and drank through a long tube that acts as a straw
Carl Gustav: 84mm Recoiless rifle that can fire HE, HEDP, and HEAT among other types of rounds.
CDMA:
Code Division Multiple Access, a way to access channels utilized by various radios
Celox: A hemostatic agent which quickly clots bleeding injuries
CHU: Compartmentalized Housing Unit
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency
CISEN: Mexican intelligence service
Comms: Communications
COMSEC: Communications Security
CP: Control Point
Crypto: Cryptography
DEA: Drug Enforcement Agency
Delta Force: US Army counter-terrorist unit
Det-Chord: Detonation Chord, used to sympathetically detonate larger explosive charges
Dev: (see SEAL Team Six)
Direct Action: A mission tasked to kill enemy soldiers or terrorists
DLI: Defense Language Institute
DOE: Department of Energy
F-5: Fighter Jet
FARC:
Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, Colombian guerrilla group
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
FES: Mexican maritime commandos
FID: Foreign Internal Defense
Flashbang: A distraction device which can be thrown into a room and creates a flash and a bang
Flexcuff: Disposable plastic handcuffs
FOB: Forward Operating Base
GAFE: Mexican Counter-Terrorist unit
Glock: Austrian made brand of pistols
GPS: Global Positioning System
GSG-9: German Counter-Terrorist unit
GUARD: Global Unconventional Aid, Rescue, and Defense, a US-based Private Military Company
HE: High Explosive
HEAT: High Explosive Anti-Tank
HEDP: High Explosive Dual Purpose
Hextend: A blood plasma extender
HF: High Frequency
HK 416: German made carbine rifle with a gas-piston upper receiver chambered in 5.56
HK 417: German made big brother to the 416 but chambered for the 7.62 bullet
HMMWV:
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle
Hoolie tool: Also known as a Hooligan tool, this metal pry bar is used for mechanically breaching doors
HUMINT: Human Intelligence
HVT: High Value Target
IED: Improvised Explosive Device
IR: Infrared
Iridium phone: Mobile satellite telephone
ISA: Intelligence Support Activity. Unit that conducts intelligence gathering operations for Special Operations.
ISR: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
Iveco: Truck manufacturer
JDAM: Joint Direct Attack Munition
Ka-bar: Military fighting knife.
Kaibiles: Guatemalan Special Forces
Kalashnikov: See AK-47
KIA: Killed In Action
LAW: Light Anti-Tank rocket launcher
LOA: Limit Of Advance
M-10: Scope used to sight in a Carl Gustav recoiless rifle
M-1950: Green canvas bag used to hold and protect a para-trooper's rifle during a parachute jump
M16: Standard issue American combat rifle
M203: Under barrel, breach loaded, 40mm grenade launcher
M240B: 7.62 belt fed General Purpose Machine Gun
M249 SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon, belt fed and chambered for 5.56
M2HB: .50 caliber machine gun
M4: Shortened M16 carbine, commonly carried by US forces
MAC-10: American made Sub-Machine Gun
MBITR:
Multiband Inter/Intra Team Radio