Dangerous Territory: An Alpha Ops novella Read Online Free PDF

on level ground, covering the LZ.”
    “Good job, Playboy. We’re overhead. Can you light it up?”
    “Copy that.”
    Josh peered outside the door, and in thirty seconds, four lit green flares were thrown to four corners of their landing zone.
    As the primary helo landed, Josh took the aircraft-mounted machine gun and opened fire into the hill to the west of the LZ. He could see the muzzle flashes of the insurgents and just aimed right there. His pilot made half-circle sweeps so that Josh could pin the shooters down. It worked.
    The primary picked up two wounded, one dead, and five survivors. As rescues go, it wasn’t optimal, but he had seen a lot worse. With the cabin door open, he hung out, watching the progress of the sandstorm.
    He checked the perimeter of the LZ as the other helo took off and banked sharply back toward base. Josh’s pilot followed suit, and soon they were thrumming over the desert, back to base. In seconds they heard the roar of aircraft over the valley behind them. Josh took one last moment to hang out the door and watch as the hillside blew up like it was Armageddon. God bless the air force.
    “Charlie to Echo?”
    Josh’s pilot responded, “Echo, Charlie?”
    “Yeah, we have a problem. We’ve left one behind.”
    Josh’s blood ran cold. Everyone in their cabin looked at one another with the same expression of dread. The pilot automatically pulled back on the throttle until they were virtually hovering.
    “It’s their embedded reporter. No one realized that they weren’t with them until we were able to put the lights on in the cabin. I’ve got a critical here. We’ve got permission to split. The TACP has their last coordinates.”
    Fuck. A reporter? They were going to risk their lives for a fucking reporter?
    Josh found it hard to justify the team’s lives for a reporter no one believed should be in a freaking war zone. He’d lost count of the number of international coalition forces who had died trying to rescue kidnapped reporters. Man. Talk about walking through the fire for someone who wouldn’t think twice about stabbing you in the back. Leeches. All of them.
    He turned to D.D. “I’ll rope down first and secure our LZ. When you get the okay, come join me.” He grinned. “And try not to leave me hanging, okay?”
    D.D. nodded, but he didn’t smile. He was checking Josh’s harness and then his own. Waves of anxiety rolled off him. Josh let him internalize his fear and left him be.
    The pilot took coordinates over the radio and positioned them directly over the last place the reporter had been seen. Josh attached himself to the rappelling rope and gave D.D. the okay sign.
    Attached to his descender, he silently slid thirty feet down the rope. He pointed a small pencil light at the ground to estimate his distance. As soon as he lit it up, muzzle flashes came from the opposite side of the valley. And a split second after, he heard bullets ricocheting off the helicopter fuselage. He hit his release button and dropped the remaining eight feet to the ground.
    He landed on a sharp rock and turned his ankle. Staying down, he caught his breath and assessed his injuries, then watched the helo bank away from the drop zone, with D.D. still on board. Pain shot through his leg.
    “This is T.S. Come in,” he whispered into his mic. Crickets. Not even static buzzed in reply. Shit. He must have pulled a wire loose when he fell. He lay in the dark silently, formulating a plan that wouldn’t get him killed in the next ten minutes.

Chapter Four

    As Grace peered out of the cave, she heard the screaming of the second fighter jet overhead. The deafening sound that echoed around the valley brought a smile to her face. She couldn’t see them, so she figured they must have been above the sandstorm. Then, as the sound faded north up the valley, the crashing thunder of explosions rocked the ground. Bright light lit up the sand-saturated sky. God bless the United States Air Force, she thought,