Echo Six: Black Ops 7 - Tibetan Fury Read Online Free PDF

way, about a half hour before they arrive. They've instructed us to stay on station in case we're needed."
    "Roger that. Be advised, two of our own guys out there, they were killed in the firefight before you arrived. We'll be going to retrieve their bodies."
    A pause. "I'm sorry to hear that. We'll hold our fire."
    Talley climbed to his feet. "Let's go find our men. They're coming home. Roy, you're hurt, so stay here. Vince, stay with him, you too, Virgil. The rest of you, let's go find them. We're taking them home."
    The carnage was incredible, human flesh and bone torn into small pieces, mixed up with snowflakes, and then minced into little pieces. Churned up with broken metal parts of AK-47s and bent brass cartridge cases into a bloody mess. They waded through the bloody field of death until they reached the two fallen men. Claude Vartan, whose remains would be buried back in France, and Ludwig Fromm, who recently moved into a new apartment outside Brussels with his wife and young son.

    * * *

    The helo crews watched as they lifted the two bodies aboard and then helped Roy Reynolds inside. Blood dripped through the battlefield dressing, and a crewman came forward to put on a fresh bandage and administer a shot. There was no need to say anything. No words could mitigate the events that had overtaken them. It had been a disaster.
    The journey back to Bagram was mostly completed in silence. They were escorted by two new arrivals, another pair of F/A 18s circled like anxious sheepdogs around a flock of sheep. It was a long journey, with only the bitter taste of failure to keep them company. Even Rovere, always buoyed up and optimistic, wore a scowl. Thirty minutes out from Bagram, he moved up next to Talley and Guy Welland.
    "That Air Force colonel, if the Taliban hadn't got him, I'd have gone after him myself," he muttered.
    "Take it easy," Talley said gently, "We'll never know what went wrong. It's not the first intelligence failing in the world, and it won't be the last."
    He realized Buchmann had joined them and was listening.
    "This time you're wrong, Boss," Guy interrupted, "With a major al Qaeda operation going down, someone should have looked it over much closer. It wasn't a failure. It was criminal neglect."
    Buchmann nodded his head slowly. His big, brutal face was stretched into a tight mask of anger. Talley shuddered.
    If that Air Force officer hadn't taken the sniper bullet, Heinrich would have gone looking for him, and God help him.
    Guy struggled hard to contain his anger. His last words were, "Someone's going down for this one. Heads are gonna roll."

    * * *

    "Heads are gonna roll!"
    Vice Admiral Brooks stared at them as they filed into the briefing room. He'd only said those four words and nothing more when they landed. They'd watched in silence as the bodies were unloaded and carried away on a base ambulance. He followed up with another four words.
    "Briefing room, ten minutes."
    They filed in, unchanged in their Arctic camos and helmets, the weapons still covered in strips of white cloth. He nodded to Talley and then waited until they were all inside. Buchmann stood at one side apart from the rest of the men, his face dark with fury. Talley had never seen him so angry, and reflected that the intel officer had almost been lucky the sniper got him. Buchmann's justice would have been long and painful.
    Brooks stared at them for a few moments before he spoke.
    "Sit down, men. First, three USAF personnel are under arrest. It seems they recycled old intel reports because they were too busy running some Afghan aid scam in Kabul. The Air Force went crazy when I told them about the fuckup in Kashmir, and it took them about ten minutes for find out what was happening. Those men, a captain, a lieutenant, and a master-sergeant, can expect to serve long terms if they're found guilty."
    "They should be taken out and shot!" Guy murmured but loud enough for him to hear, "As if we don't have enough problems with these