Burning Angels Read Online Free PDF

biological and chemical. Now it was CBRN – chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear – the new terminology reflecting the new world order. When the Soviet Union had been the enemy of the West, the top threat was nuclear. But in a fractured world rife with rogue states and terrorist groups, chemical and biological warfare – or more likely terrorism – was the new priority threat.
    Jaeger, Raff and Narov each carried a SIG P228, with an extended twenty-round magazine, plus six mags of spare ammo. And each had their blade. Narov’s was a Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, a razor-sharp weapon for up-close killing. It was a highly distinctive weapon that had had been issued to British commandos during the war. Her attachment to that blade was another of the mysteries that so intrigued Jaeger.
    But tonight, no one was intending to use bullets or blades to take care of the enemy. The quieter and cleaner they could keep this, the better. Let the Kolokol-1 do its silent work.
    Jaeger checked his watch: three minutes out from the drop. ‘You ready?’ he yelled. ‘Remember, give the gas time to take hold.’
    He got a nod and a thumbs up. Raff and Narov were absolute pros – the best – and he didn’t detect the slightest hint of nerves. Sure, they were outnumbered ten-to-one, but he figured the Kolokol-1 evened up the odds a little. Of course, no one was exactly relishing using the gas. But sometimes, as Narov argued, you used a lesser evil to fight a greater one.
    As he psyched himself up for the jump Jaeger felt a niggling worry, though: there were never any guarantees when doing an LLP.
    When serving in the SAS, he’d spent a great deal of time trialling cutting-edge, space-age equipment. Working with the Joint Air Transport Establishment (the JATE) – a secretive outfit overseeing James Bond-like air-insertion techniques – he’d leapt from the very highest altitudes possible.
    But recently the British military had developed a very different kind of concept. Instead of jumping from the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the LLP was designed to enable a paratrooper to leap at near-zero altitude and still survive.
    In theory, it allowed a jump height of some 250 feet, so keeping the aircraft well below radar level. In short, it enabled a force to fly into hostile territory with little risk of detection – hence why they were using it on tonight’s mission.
    With split seconds in which to deploy, the LLP chute was designed to have a flat and wide profile, to catch the maximum air. But even so, it still required a rocket-assisted pack to get the chute to fully deploy before the jumper splashed down. And even with that rocket pack – in essence, a release mechanism that blasted your parachute high into the air – you still had barely five seconds in which to slow your descent and make landfall.
    That allowed no time for messing up.
    But likewise, it gave zero time for the enemy to spot you, or to prevent you from reaching the ground – or the water – alive.

 
    6
    The jump light flashed green for go.
    In one continuous stream lasting bare milliseconds, Jaeger, Raff and Narov dived out of the C-130’s open ramp. Their stick-like figures were sucked into the howling void. Jaeger felt himself buffeted like a ragdoll in a giant wind tunnel. Below him, he could just make out the seething ocean rushing ever closer: impact had to be just seconds away.
    Not a moment too soon he triggered his rocket-assisted chute, and suddenly he felt as if he was being blasted into the heavens on the tail of some roaring missile. Moments later the rocket motor died, and the chute’s canopy bloomed high in the darkness above him.
    It inflated with a sharp snap, catching the air just seconds after the rocket pack reached the apex of its climb. Jaeger’s stomach did a series of sickening somersaults . . . and the next instant he found himself drifting gently downwards towards the heaving sea.
    As his feet hit the water, Jaeger