Betrayed (written by yours truly)part 1

[allyb646]

The freezing mountain air rushed past as they flew unnoticed through the mountains of Afghanistan, the helicopter, terribly out dated; an old Huey from back in the Vietnam War, inside it a young pilot by the name of Private James Kennelly and a middle aged gunner, lieutenant Adam Pent. In the passenger bay sat four soldiers in black combat attire nestling F88 assault rifles and a string of RDX highly explosive grenades clipped to their combat webbing. The commanding officer went by the name of Captain Jason Bowen, also known as Crash.
The team was made up of four Australian SAS soldiers, Captain Jason “Crash” Bowen, 2nd lieutenant Olivia “Bird” Coln ( the first woman in the SAS), Captain Jim “Skip” Brown and Corporal Jayden ”Southman” Cobalt. The mission was to fly to a remote Taliban base where an American Colonel was being held prisoner.
“Hey Jason how until we arrive at the base?”
“Not long now Southman”
Jason stood ‘5.9’ and had short brown hair. He had broad shoulders and light brown eyes.
Mission is a go!
The four soldiers dropped quickly and smoothly from the helicopter to an assigned landing zone, the enemy territory just 1km away.
It was dark and the tall pine trees around only blocked out the moonlight even more and made the scene a whole lot more eerie.
“Crash this place scares the **** outa me”
“How do you think I feel Jim?”
“Jeez that’s comforting coming from our fearless team leader Captain Jason “Crash” Bowen.”
Southman piped up “God Liv what’s up your arse?”
“Would you lot shut up? You’d never make it in a warzone.”
“Yeah Ha-ha Jase very funny.”
The cold Afghani mountain air almost froze their hands to the cold metal of their F88’s.
“God I haven’t been this cold since Russia.”
“Seriously Jim for a covert operation you sound like you’re trying to make it clear to the enemy as to where we are!”
“Yes Sir. I’ll shut up now.”
Southman was a young, average heighted man, only twenty three but had the mind of a fifteen year old. He had short, spiked, bleach blonde hair in which always had gel in it.
As the team made their way closer to the edge of the forest they also got closer to the enemy; who felt no mercy and didn’t mind dying for their cause.
“Oi Crash, so who is this American fella we’re busting out?”
“His name is Colonel Peter Eln and he is with the USMC and he has Intel on the whereabouts of one of the major Taliban groups; the ones who planned 9, 11, so us being the only spec ops unit in the area we were sent in.”
“So how did he come to being held prisoner in the first place?”
“No idea, that was just one of the many things I wasn’t told.”
Jim was in his mid-thirties and like Southman was as mature as a teenager. Jim always stood up straight adding to the fact that he was a giant, not muscly but tall, very tall.
Jason knew they were close; he could see the smoke from an open fire and could smell the foul stench of a mass grave. Whoever these bastards were they meant business. Jason sent Bird and Southman to find a good cover point, when they returned they had found a rocky outcrop on a ridge 50 metres away from the target building. The building was completely made from concrete, adding to the harsh look of it, it had small windows dotted around the walls and it had a slightly rounded roof making it look like a WWII bunker. There was just one problem, a problem that Jason was never told about, there was only one way in and one way out and the passage was heavily guarded. Everything about this mission felt wrong from the start.
The four sat spread out along the rock on the ridge, their night vision goggles turning the night into a world of luminous green and white. At the entrance to the fortress stood two grubby looking men wearing Pakols, one holding a pump action shotgun and the other holding a Russian Kalashnikov. Getting in without being noticed was going to be tricky.
“Crash!”
“What?”
“How are we going to get in here without being noticed?”
“Okay, I suggest we split up and take separate walls and take them by surprise.”
“Simple. Yet genius.”
“Right now that that’s clear, Jim, Bird you two take the west wall Southman and I will take the east side.”
Southman and Jason moved silently along the cold eastern wall of the fortress, Jason in the lead. As they rounded the corner they were greeted by the dirty face of the door guard and with a quick short sharp BAM! The man was on the ground, dead, with no hesitation Jason glanced toward the west corner and found Bird and Jim, and they then radioed in to Colonel Lachlan Challen. Challen spoke with thick Irish accent; he was in his late forties and had prematurely grey hair.
“Colonel Challen, come in.”
“I’m here Captain.”
“Sir we’ve taken the entrance to the building. Do you have any Intel as to where Colonel Eln is located?”
“Yes Captain, all I can tell you is that there is a central stairwell leading down into a basement. That is where the Colonel is. There are three floors all up.”
“Thankyou Colonel Challen. That is all, over and out.”
The four busted down the locked door catching two men by surprise, the men raised their guns, not quick enough; they were cut down where they stood by a blast of F88 automatic fire. The main hallway leading to the stairwell was clear but there were closed doors all along the hall, three on each side.
“What’s that smell?”
“Liv that is the smell of people stoned out of their minds.”
“On what?”
“Opium or ‘poppy’, it’s like heroin only about fifty times stronger.”
“Are you speaking from experience Jase?”
“Hell no. Alright Bird and I will take the left side, Jim Southman, I'm counting on you two idiots to be mature so you take the right.”
Bird stepped into the first room throwing in a flash bang, covering her ears then going in to find the room completely empty.
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
“Clear!”
“Crash, what about you?”
“Uh, not so clear, help!”
“****!”
Bird, Southman and Jim rushed to the room that Jason was held up in, only to be confronted by a man who was holding a knife to Jason’s throat and shouting orders in Pashto. Not a problem BAM! One in the leg and one in the one in the head. Jason fell to his knees holding his neck gasping for air.
“You okay Jase?”
“Yeah I'm just dandy.”
“I think you can shout clear now.”
“Ha-ha. Okay I think we should advance to the next floor.”
“Recovered already?”
“I’m fine.”
The four advanced down the stairwell guns up ready to fire if necessary. Once at the second floor the enemy was well and truly aware of their presence but strangely the hostiles hesitated, bad choice BAM! BAM! BAM! It was strange, it seemed as if they were inexperienced, the whole place seemed like some sort of Taliban training facility.
“Clear!”
“Okay this is weird.”
“What’s weird?”
“Think about it, we are ordered to go to a top secret Taliban fortress to rescue an American Colonel who is being held prisoner at some sort of opium den/ Taliban training facility, which is supposed to be the most well defended building in Afghanistan.”
“Yeah okay I understand what you mean.”
“I just hope we don’t get any more surprises.”
Jason always called Jim “Skip” Brown by his first name and never his call sign, only because Jim earned his call sign during an unfortunate training exercise, Jim’s life was saved but the man who saved him whose name was “Skippy” died doing it. Jim never called himself “Skip” and never gave permission to do so but people called him that anyway, Jason respected that and always called him Jim. Olivia “Bird” Coln earned her name from an incident during downtime, a group of young soldiers were horsing around when they saw a family of ducks, so boys being boys chased them and one of the four ducklings was killed, that’s when Liv lost it, so she gave them what for. Jayden “Southman” Cobalt got his name in a less glamorous way, his first training base was in Darwin, one day during an exercise he suffered from heat exhaustion and being from Victoria he was named “Southman”. Jason earned his name in an incident when he first joined up, he was driving a military vehicle when a kangaroo jumped on to the road, he swerved to miss it, but careered into a tree, the crash broke his back and he was put in hospital for eight months.
“Alright everyone, take five, we’ll discuss a plan for the rescue and escape then.”
Jason sat on an old chair lent forward with his eyes squeezed shut.
“Crash are you alright?”
“Yeah I'm fine Liv; my back’s just giving me ****.”
“Yeah well if it gets worse tell me, I am the team medic.” Jason nodded at Olivia, for a woman she looked rather fierce, with short ragged cut blonde hair and muscular physique.
Jason winced as he stood to address the group, he tried to hide the pain, and it didn’t work.
“Jase you look like ****.”
“I'm alright Jim.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then.”
“Right.”
“Nope it’s left.”
“Would you just shut up this is serious!”
“Yes Sir.”
Jason shot a look at Jim signalling that he wasn’t really in the mood for jokes.
“It is clear that we have no other way of accessing the basement but through that stairwell…”
Southman interrupted. “Hang on Jase; I think we should consult Colonel Challen.”
“Good point. Colonel Challen this is Captain Bowen do you read me? Over.”
“Loud and clear Captain.”
“Sir we have taken control of the second floor.”
“Well done Captain. What is your status?”
“All unit members accounted for and seven enemy casualties.”
“Sounds like it’s all going to plan.”
“Yes well we are on the second floor and what I want to know is if you have any idea as to what we’re in for down in the basement?”
The Colonel’s voice was stern and concerned.
“Captain, I have absolutely no clue as to what you might find down there.”
“Okay Colonel, thankyou over and out.”
Jason sat back down on the chair rubbing his temples, his helmet sat on the table beside him rocking back and forth.
“So what’s the plan?”
“Well Liv, there isn’t much point in having one, I mean it’s as straight forward as it gets.”
“But what is it?”
After a pause Jason lifted his head from its stare at the polished concrete and answered.
“Okay we head down the stairs storm the place, grab Eln and get our asses back to the L.Z.”
The group headed down the stairwell Jason and Bird in the lead, Southman and Jim trailing from behind. When they approached the basement Jason was confronted by a steel reinforced door.
“I don’t think this one can be kicked in.”
“Well aren’t you just a Sherlock Holmes wannabe.”
“Okay who wants to blow something up?”
Jim and Southman raised their hands with enthusiasm. Jason unclipped an RDX grenade from his combat webbing and placed it at the base of the door and ran behind the staircase with the others. BOOM! The explosion reverberated through the building but what lay behind the dust cloud was a whole new nightmare.
When the dust settled the room behind the door was revealed, in the room stood an entire unit of men, wearing black combat attire and face masks, their only mistake was that they were holding Desert Eagle pistols; the Desert eagle was a signature weapon, the signature of the United States Marine Corp, in other words, Americans.
Had the Americans reached the Colonel first? No these men were standing in offensive positions and were aimed at the door, then out of nowhere Jason heard the southern accent of Colonel Peter Eln.
“Well done Captain Bowen your bravery astounds me. Too bad you won’t be alive for anyone to recognise it.”
Then came the blast of automatic fire that sent Jason diving for cover. Jason, Bird, Jim and Southman raced up the stairs, Jason frantically yelling into this head mike for a helicopter at the L.Z, in his words his team heard Jason say the words no soldier want to hear their commander say…
“Mayday! Mayday! We need help! It’s all gone wrong!”
Liv glanced over at Jason and when he looked at her his face was a pale as ever. The team had been through rough times but she had never seen Jason so worried.
When the team had reached the top floor seven of their pursuers were hot on their tail.
“Everyone head for the L.Z. we should have a chopper waiting.”
As the group reached the edge of the pines they could hear the shouts and random gunfire of the men chasing them, why were the men who were supposed to be on their team trying to kill them?
When they reached the L.Z Jason noticed that the environment was strangely quiet; quiet enough so that he realized that no one was chasing them anymore, he then saw the thick plume of smoke just 50 metres away. Jason cautiously moved through the pines toward the source of the smoke. As he approached the location of the source he heard a painful groan. When he got closer he realized that it was the wreckage of their Huey and the sound had come from Private James Kennelly. The helicopter had been shot down but with no explosion Private Kennelly had landed it.
“James!”
Jason pulled the wounded pilot from the cockpit of the aircraft while Bird was checking Adam.
“Liv! How’s Adam?”
“He’s dead Sir.”
“****!”
Lieutenant Adam Pent was in the exposed area of the chopper and took the full brunt of the attack.
“Okay. James can you hear me?”
Kennelly let out a small painful response. He had been shot once in the leg and twice in the back.
“Get over here and help me out Liv!”
Olivia ran to Jason and Kennelly unclipping her pack at the same time.
“Southman, Jim set up a perimeter!”
The two men set aside their immaturity and set about their task with complete professionalism while Olivia treated James.
“Sir this doesn’t look good he needs a medivac quickly, he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“We can’t get one here they’ll find where we are.”
Jason pulled out a small GPS and located a nearby cave with a flat entrance with just enough room to land a medivac chopper.
“Sir what do we do about Adam?”
Jason paused.
“Liv there isn’t much we can do; we have to leave him here for now.”
Olivia became hysterical.
“No! We can’t just leave him; he’s part of our team!
“Liv! Stop!”
“No! How can you do this? After all he’s done for us you’re just going to forget him and leave him to rot in the stupid ****ing country!”
Jason grabbed Liv by the shoulders who by that time was crying excessively.
“Liv we have to, we can’t get him to that cave by ourselves, if we try we will all end up dead, Liv I will come back for him.”
“Okay.”
Jason called in Southman and Jim and put the wounded pilot over his shoulders. The climb up to the cave was steep and Jason found it hard not to stumble over the rocks.
When they reached the cave they could hear a chopper in the distance. The sound grew louder as the chopper neared. When the chopper landed just as the doors opened the scrub around the cave erupted with automatic fire. Jason shoved James and liv into the chopper, Jim, Southman and himself leapt in just as the chopper lifted off the ground. While in the process Jason received a stray round in the upper arm but that didn’t stop him.
While on their way back to FOB Resolute Jason didn’t even notice that he had been hit. When the medivac arrived at FOB Resolute, James was rushed off to the field hospital and Liv, Jim and Southman headed off for some R & R but to Jason the mission wasn’t over.
When Jason’s boots touched the ground of coalition soil it was already morning. The others noticed Jason fixed gaze on the CO’s office.
“God Jim, I hope he does nothing stupid.”
“I really doubt he’s doing anything sensible.”
Jason walked straight past Liv and Jim and went straight into the office of Colonel Challen. When he entered the room the air was thick with cigarette smoke and Challen had his head buried in a foolscap document. Challen didn’t even enallage Jason‘s presence and continued reading. Jason stood there for a moment waiting for a response.
“I’m not going to speak until you show some respect and knock before you come in Captain.”
With that comment Jason lost his temper and sent his fist sweeping across Challen’s desk, sending pens and paper across the small room. Challen stood up in an instant, his fists clenched his eyes fixed on Jason, and if he was trying to intimidate him it wasn’t working.
“Who the hell do you think you are Bowen?”
“Well why don’t you ask yourself that question? Colonel.”
“What is your problem Captain?”
“Why the **** were American marines firing on us?”
“Maybe it was a mistake.”
“Oh okay it was a mistake that Eln openly said to me that he wanted me dead! He knew my name for Christ’s sake! And it just so happens that you were the only other person who knew about the operation.”
“Captain settle down or I’ll have you arrested.”
Jason’s tone changed dramatically as he picked up an overturned chair and sat down.
“Well Sir isn’t it a coincidence that my unit are given **** all information, a **** helicopter which ends up getting shot down, I end up losing one of my unit members and Eln says he wants me dead and You were the only other person to knew about the mission.”
Challen had heard quite enough. The Colonel hurled himself across the table toward where Jason was now standing in a rage, before Jason could defend himself Challen had landed a powerful blow to his bottom jaw, but before Challen could throw another punch Jason had stood up and threw one that broke Challen’s nose. When Challen stood up he raised his hands in surrender and spoke while puffing for breath.
“Jason, I never leaked about any part of the mission.”
“Then who found out?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out.”
“Alright, oh and sorry about breaking your nose.”
“It’s fine I hit you first, Jesus Bowen you’ve been hit.”
“Yeah by you.”
“No I mean you have a bullet wound.”
“What?”
He didn’t notice the wound until then. Jason raised his shirt sleeve to reveal the entry wound that went straight through the tribal tattoo on his upper arm.
“Awe come on, that cost me five-hundred dollars.”
“Captain I’d be more worried about the wound than the tattoo. Now get yourself over to a medic and get that fixed oh and get some stitches in your head.”
Jason didn’t realize again, that when the door in the fortress blew up some shrapnel flew back and hit him in the forehead.
As Jason walked over to where Bird, Jim and Southman were relaxing, his head and back started to throb.
“Jesus! What the hell did Challen do to you?”
“We sorted things out.”
“By sorted out do you mean there was punches thrown?”
Jason nodded.
“Okay Liv I've got some work for you.”
Jason pointed to the gash on his head and lifted to the sleeve of his shirt to reveal the bullet wound.”
“Well then.”
“Alright then get your kit off Jase.”
Jim let out a roar of laughter and Southman made a love heart gesture with his hands.
“Can you lot be mature at all?”
“Nope.”
“Alright sit still it might hurt.”
Jason sat patiently as Liv stitched up the entry and exit wound; the bullet had gone through cleanly but still made a mess of Jason’s arm.
When Liv had finished with Jason he headed over to the field hospital to see how Private Kennelly was recovering. When he arrived at Kennelly’s bed side, James tried to sit up to salute Jason.
“Don’t. How are you James?”
“I’m a bit sore Sir.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Sir how are the others?”
“Jim, Liv and Southman are all right.”
“What about lieutenant Pent?”
Jason placed his head in his hands; it had already been long day.
“Sorry, when the helicopter was shot down, Adam took the brunt end of the attack, he didn’t make it.”
Kennelly lowered his gaze to the two lumps in the blanket that were his knees.
“I’ll give you some time alone hey.”
“Yeah alright, seeya.”
As Jason left the sterile environment of the hospital he started to think about how to get Adam back, when a familiar voice disturbed his thoughts.
“Captain Bowen.”
Jason pivoted on his feet to see who the voice belonged to and when he found out his hand rose to his head as fast as lightning in salute.
“General McCollum, you caught me by surprise.”
The General placed his hand on Jason’s shoulder and started walking in the same direction as Jason was already going.
“I heard you had a rough night son.”
“Yeah a bit.”
“Well you certainly look like it, you’re a bloody mess.”
“Why was it that you want to speak to me General?”
“I just want to know how the mission went, but there is no sense in talking about it here so I’ll meet you in Challen’s office in twenty minutes.”
“Okay then, oh and sir, um we lost a member of our unit this morning and we had to leave him behind so we want him back for a proper sent off.”
“Captain I admire your morals, I’ll see to it that a unit goes on a recovery mission today.”
“Well sir I’d like to go personally.”
“Okay you have my permission, but don’t go and do anything stupid.”
“Yes Sir.”
After the General departed, Jason slowly walked toward Challen’s office. On his way he was stopped by an angry shout.
“It was your fault he died!”
Jason quickly spun on his feet to find Corporal Darren Mclean, a regular soldier but a good friend of Adam Pent.
“Corporal, it wasn’t any one’s fault, you know that.”
“No! You had it lucky one to many times, you’ve played with their lives enough!”
“Look I don’t have time for this.”
Jason turned toward Challen’s office and continued his slow walk toward his destination leaving the enraged soldier behind in the heat, dust and sorrow of Afghanistan.
“So Captain shall we start from the top?”
“Sounds good sir.”
“Fire away.”
Jason explained the events that took place early that morning. As he went on the General grew more uncomfortable. When Jason explained that Colonel Eln personally wanted him dead the General rose out of his chair.
“Captain I admire the fact that you want justice, and justice you will get. I personally want Eln for this crime and he will be brought in for this.”
“Thank you General.”
“Oh Captain when do you intend on performing a recovery mission on Adam Pent’s body?”
“Tonight, at 23:30 hours, Sir.”
“I’ll see you off then.”
When Jason arrived back at the unit’s bunk the others were waiting for him.
“Hey how are ya?”
“Yeah alright.”
“Oi are we going on a recovery mission or what?”
“Yeah but not all of us.”
“Why not all of us?”
“Jim I don’t want to risk anyone else’s life today, besides it’s only a two man mission.”
“Righto, well whose going?”
“Me and, well who wants to go?”
“Jase, I’d go but I’m buggered.”
“That’s alright Jim.”
“I’ll go.”
“Thanks Southman. Meet me at the helipad at 23:30 hours.”
Southman stood up while stretching.
“Well I’m going to go and get some shut eye.”
“Yeah not far behind you mate.”
The time had come and most of FOB (Forward Operating Base) Resolute had shut down, Jason and Southman powered up yet another Huey that meant nothing to the army. Only this time there was only two soldiers, Jason in the pilot’s seat and Southman in the passenger bay manning the door mounted machine gun. The pair approached the cold harsh Afghani Mountains only while something else was happening back at FOB Resolute.
As Jason and Southman were in a helicopter high above the mountains of Afghanistan four bright orange smoke trails twisted their way toward the unsuspecting army base. Enemy fired RPG’s. When Liv heard the whistle of the enemy artillery she immediately leapt out of bed and ran outside. That’s when the first one slammed into the ground just inside the base fences.
“****!”
Just after the explosion commenced men came hurrying out of their quarters to defend against the insurgent attack. The others were awake in an instant kitting up and getting ready to find the attackers. Two minutes later two soldiers were zooming down a dirt road toward the source of the attack. Back in the chopper Jason and Southman were receiving radio messages from the FOB and some from someone with a southern American accent.
“We need assistance, requesting a medivac this is urgent, I repeat this is urgent…”
“Firing on insurgents…”
“Requesting air artillery on hostiles…”
Jason turned to face Southman who had an anxious look about him.
“Sir it’s worked, we have located a lone vehicle heading for our location, Bowen’s fallen for our trap...”
Jason’s eyes widened as he looked at Southman.
“What the hell?”
As Jason turned around in his seat he realized that it was Colonel Eln attacking the base in hope of luring himself out.
“Southman we’re turning around.”
“Sir what about Lieutenant Pent?”
“This mission can wait for another day, but I’ll be damned if I’m letting another one of my unit die today.”
“How do you know that it’s Liv and Jim?”
“I just do?”
“How?”
“I told General McCollum about our mission.”
“So you reckon it’s him that leaked about the rescue mission.”
“Yep.”
Jason flew the old helicopter his eyes in a fixed and determined gaze on the sky in front of him. Mid way back to FOB Resolute Southman spotted an American vehicle towing an Australian sand terrain vehicle used by Australian Special Forces soldiers.
Just moments before Southman had located the vehicles Bird and Jim found the source of the attack. There were two men running for their vehicle; an American army Humvee. As liv and Jim pulled up and exited their buggy in order storm the enemy Humvee their vehicle had suddenly become surrounded with soldiers wearing black combats, holstering Desert Eagle pistols.
“Sir, Bowen’s not with them.”
“Damn!”
One lone figure stepped out from the rest of the group and spoke with a deep Southern American accent.
“Drop your weapons!”
“How about no!”
Liv stepped forward and spat in the soldier’s face who then removed his mask to reveal his face; it was Colonel Peter Eln of the USMC.
“Well look what we have on our hands boys, a stubborn little lady.”
Liv just stood there, her piercing green eyes stabbing into Eln.
“I always knew that Australia’s SAS was weak but this, this is their worst mistake, accepting a woman into the force, well that just takes the bait, and don’t you think so too Lieutenant Olivia “Bird” Coln? That’s right I know who you are.” Eln stepped toward Jim. “I also know who you are Captain Jim “Skip” Brown. Well I heard that you have known Captain Bowen for almost eighteen years now and that’s why you are going to help me find out where the hell that little **** Bowen is.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’m going kill you myself and hunt down your wife and child and kill them very slowly. Is that clear Captain?”
Eln walked back toward the vehicle.
“Sir what do we do with the captives?”
“Load them into the truck.”
With that last comment one soldier stood forward and landed a powerful blow to Liv’s face with the butt of his gun, then all she saw was black.
Jason and Southman grew worried as they saw the dune buggy being towed behind the American Humvee.
“Oi Crash that’s one of our buggies.’
“Yeah I know.”
Jason sped up in the chopper to catch up with the speeding Humvee. Once the Huey had gained to the speed of the Humvee Jason intercepted the convoy by firing a line of tracers in front of the vehicle before landing before the huge car. When Jason stepped out of the aircraft no more than twelve men stepped out of the Humvee. And one spoke with a voice that Jason despised.
“Well, well look what the cat dragged in.”
“What do you want Eln?”
“I thought that was clear to you Captain, I did tell you this morning, but if that wasn’t clear enough I’ll tell you again, Captain I want your life.”
“And why would that be?”
“Well you see Captain, it isn’t a personal matter it’s just that you stand in my way and because you’re in my way I cannot achieve my goal.”
“Okay cut the crap and get to the point Eln.”
“Captain there is no need to be so impatient. You see you are the last person in your family as your mother is dead so is your father and you had no siblings, therefore you are the only eligible person to hold the master password to the American intercontinental missile data and control centre.”
It was true, during the Cold War; Anthony Bowen; Jason’s father; was entrusted with the password to the American intercontinental missile data and control centre or AIMDC, by the American government.
“Okay then Colonel so once you get the password what do you intend on doing with it?”
“I intend on making America its own country, why? Because for too long I have seen it ruled by other countries, for example China and another thing is that I have seen America and Russia hate each other for too long. Captain do you know what those two countries have in common? Communism.”
“So you hate communism? Eln you are just like every other redneck American who hates commies, why can’t you just bury your hatred like all the others?”
“Because Captain, I’m not just like all the other redneck Americans. I’m not puny, worthless and without willpower, Captain I’m much different.”
“And what’s that difference?”
“I have power, they don’t.”
As Eln turned to leave three of his men attempted to arrest Jason and Southman only to be stopped by receiving a fist to face. The first three were blown back giving Southman and Jason time to scoop up their guns head for the still running chopper. Southman laid into the men on the ground with the door mounted machine gun cutting them down where they stood.
“Sir! Liv and Jim are still in that Humvee!”
“Yeah I know I’m working on it!”
The helicopter was still hovering a metre above the ground.
“Hang on to something back there Southman.”
Southman immediately wrapped his arms around the mount for the machine gun while Jason prepared to do something he desperately hoped would work.
After doing a lap around the convoy and when they circled back around Southman saw what Jason was ready to do.
“Jase you crazy mother ****er!”
“Crazy never stopped me before.”
continue to part 2

[allyb646]

Jason pushed the throttle of the helicopter forward just as the landing skids slammed into the side of the Humvee! Flipping it and the dune buggy behind it onto their rooves. The backdoors of the Humvee busted open and a dark figure stumbled out carrying the limp body of Lieutenant Olivia Coln.
“Jesus Jim, is she alright?” Jason asked as he lifted the chopper off the ground
“She’s fine; she just received the hardest hit I've ever seen.”
“What happened?”
“Some ******* hit her in the face the butt of his gun.”
“****.”
“Damn right, ****, he hit her so hard it put out instantly, I went to catch her and the bloody bastard tried to shoot me.”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“Right now we are going back to the FOB.”
“To do what sit on our arses and wait to get killed?”
“I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
Jim looked into the cockpit of the helicopter; Jason’s face was illuminated by the instruments on the dashboard, his expression determined, angry and undisturbed.
Just as the skids touched ground Liv came to. She had a massive bruise on her face that covered her whole cheek and eye. Jason jumped out of the pilot’s seat to check on her.
“Awww my head.”
When she opened her eyes she saw Jason in front of her and with that she wrapped her arms around his neck. Everybody in the camp had been noticing the two getting close but not that close. Jim and Southman just stood there smiling, it was Jim who first picked up on it, Liv and Jason had been dating but tried to hide it from the others and they had done a **** job.
“Anything you want to tell us Jase?”
“Well I’m pretty sure you’ve figured it out now.”
Jim stood there his arms crossed nodding smugly.
“Liv are you right to walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Southman could you help Liv back to her bunk I’m going to have a word with General McCollum.”
As Southman and Jim helped Liv up, Jason headed over to the VIP building. When he knocked on the door no response came so after waiting a moment he opened the door to find General McCollum on the concrete floor with a bullet wound that went straight through his chest. Jason leapt into action, kneeling over the General pumping his chest performing CPR whilst shouting for help.
“I need help in here!”
Moments after Jason called out two medics came in and four minutes later a doctor declared General McCollum dead.
When Jason arrived back at his bunk the others were waiting up, Liv sitting with an ice pack on her head. When he walked in the others noticed that Jason’s hands and front were covered in blood.
“What the hell did you do?”
“It’s not what I did it’s what Eln did.”
“Well?”
“McCollum got the times wrong and Eln killed him as punishment for the mistake.”
“So McCollum was leaking about the mission?”
“Yeah.”
Jason sat down beside Liv and put his arm around her.
“How’s your head?”
“Sore.”
Liv removed the ice pack, showing that that bruise had gotten worse; it had gone from a light purple colour to being a deep blue-black.
“Here show me.”
Liv turned her face toward Jason. As went to touch her cheek she pulled away and winced.
“The bloody bastard’s broken your cheek bone.”
“Feels like he broke my whole face.”
Jason pulled Liv into a tight hug.
“Alright I don’t know about you guys but I’m stuffed I’m going to bed.”
Jason lay down on his bed and closed his eyes and fell into a deep, deep sleep; his dreams were filled with haunting images of his mother and father’s death.
Jason’s parents had been driving on a lonely country road leading up to their farm house, when a black Humvee came out of nowhere and rammed them off the road into a tree. It wasn’t the crash that killed them; it was the hail of bullets that did it. At first everyone thought that it was just some mad man but it now occurred to Jason that it was indeed Colonel Peter Eln who was now in Jason's bad books and when you achieve that status you don’t have much longer to live.
In the morning Jason was woken by a firm hand shaking him awake.
“Captain Bowen! Wake up!”
Jason wearily opened his eyes and saw Colonel Challen standing before him.
“Yes Sir.”
“Captain Bowen I need to speak to you about the death of General McCollum.”
“Alright then.”
Jason got up and walked toward the Colonel’s office through the early morning fog.
“Captain I have no idea as to the reason General McCollum died last night and I was hoping you would know.”
“Well as a matter of fact I do know. When I told the General what time we were leaving on a recovery mission last night he told Colonel Eln, but when he told him got the times wrong and Eln killed him as a punishment.”
“Well it sounds like we need to go and find Eln.”
“It does Sir, but I think we may need more man power.”
“Well Captain this time I would like to go with you and I will wanting to take a few more people, of your choice of course.”
“Alright then.”
A group of soldiers sat in the back of two military trucks most of them not known for their names but their reputation. Jason had handpicked them, some coming from other provinces in Afghanistan and others being drafted in from Australia most had trained for this type of mission their whole life.
Jason sat in the front of the first truck with Challen at the wheel.
“Colonel why did you want to come with us?”
“First of all quit this Colonel business, call me Lachlan and I wanted to come because I want Eln’s *** on a plate, the General was my friend and I believe that McCollum was forced into doing what he did, I reckon Eln had a knife to his throat the whole time.”
When the convoy arrived at their destination, late at night they arrived silently leaving the trucks a distance up the road, Lachlan was in charge of half the unit which had split off to circle round behind Eln.
A day earlier Jason had received intell from a local farmer who had said he’d seen two Humvees and a group of American soldiers camped in the forest behind his house. When Jason looked into it, he found out that on no data base did it say that Americans were running an operation in Helmand Province he knew it was Eln.
It had been almost two months since the last time Jason had seen Eln and in that time a lot had happened; like road side attacks on other Australian Special forces units and more and more late night attacks on FOB Resolute from unknown attackers. These incidents had all happened on nights and days that Jason’s unit had been scheduled to go out on a patrol or reconnaissance mission it seemed like too much of a coincidence to Jason.
As the unit that Jason was commanding advanced closer to Eln’s camp Jason started to feel uneasy.
“Liv this doesn’t feel right.”
“Yeah I know.”
“This isn’t like Eln, he always moves, he never stays in the same place for more than two days, and he’s apparently been here for over a week.”
“Strange…”
“I’m starting to think it’s a trap.”
“Yeah me too, but we have numbers he doesn’t.”
“True.”
“Jase stop!”
“What is it Liv?”
“I've spotted his fire, Jason we finally have him!”
Liv ran towards the clearing unaware of what lay ahead.
“Liv stop it’s a trap!”
She was too far away to hear Jason’s pleas by then.
Liv ran silently through the scrub, gun up ready to fire. When she emerged in the clearing her face froze with sheer terror. All she saw was an empty clearing with a few empty tents and a small camp fire, she then saw the dozens of gun barrels poking out of the bushes around the clearing, Liv was scared out of her mind so she slowly put her F88 on the ground, dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the back of her head, liv then closed her eyes and waited for the end. A single shot was fired and it was heard by everyone in the area.
Jason heard the shot and a chill instantly ran up his spine. Jason broke into a sprint but before he arrived at the edge of the tree line a firm hand grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Jason what are you doing?”
“Jim let me go!”
“No!”
“Jim they’ve got Liv, for Christs sake, I’m begging you, let me go.”
Jim took a moment and looked at Jason; Jason stared back at Jim through bloodshot, pleading eyes.
“Please Jim, just let me go, I need to do this.”
Jim let go of Jason and allowed him go off and help Liv.
Jason leapt out of the trees startling one of the soldiers. He saw a ring of men around Liv who was lying in a pool of blood, not moving.
“Well if it isn’t Captain Bowen stepping in to be a hero again.”
“Eln, if you let her go you can have me.”
Jason removed his mask to reveal his tear stained face.
“Well if it isn’t a little love on the battlefield.”
Jason drew his pistol and placed the barrel under his chin.
“Eln if you don’t let her go I’ll pull the trigger and you will have no password, I can delete this ****ing password as easy as pulling the trigger, don’t make me do it Colonel.”
Jim and Southman were watching this commence from the tree line. They watched Jason put his gun to his head, his legs were trembling wildly.
“Okay Captain it’s a deal, get some of your mates to come out and collect her.”
“No funny business Eln!”
Lachlan landed smoothly beside Southman.
“Southman what the hell is going on?”
“Jase is about to save Liv but die doing it.”
“Damn it.”
“Southman! Jim! I need you out here right now.” Jason called from the clearing.
Southman and Jim emerged from the scrub and just before Jim went to help Southman he stopped in front of Jason.
“Jase you don’t have to do this, we can get you and liv out of this, and we outnumber them.’
“Jim just get Liv the **** out of here that’s an order!” He shouted angrily.
“Yes Sir.”
The two men gently lifted Liv and as quick as a flash they were gone again leaving Jason alone in that deadly situation.
“Okay Captain drop your gun.” Eln said with a concerned tone
Jason dropped his gun and knelt on the ground, he then closed his eyes, just as Liv did but this time receiving the butt of a gun in the face, and then black.
When Jason awoke he could hear the muffled voices of men and he could see the insides of an aircraft; a plane; a considerably large one at that. He then heard another voice a very, very familiar one.
“Sir Bowen’s awake.”
“Well we can’t have that can we?”
Jason lifted his head to see Eln give a masked soldier a bottle containing a chemical of some sort. When he lifted his head further he saw the man soaking a rag in the chemical; chloroform. The man walked over purposefully and lifted Jason’s head gently before placing the rag over Jason's nose and mouth, but something stopped him.
“Sir he pretty out to it, if we want to keep him alive we need to give him some water and treatment, he’s not very comprehensive.”
“Okay do whatever you need to do to keep him alive for now.”
Jason saw the masked man leave the cell that he was lying in, the cold steel floor made him shiver. When the man came back he was holding a white first aid kit, the soldier crouched beside Jason and turned toward Eln.
“Jesus, what did your boys do to him?”
“He went crazy on us and tried to kill himself.”
“****!”
When the man turned back toward Jason his mask was off and Jason saw who he really was. The man caring for him was indeed some one that Jason knew, it was his adoptive brother; Markus. Markus was a tall strong man in his late twenties, his complexion was dark, and he had olive skin and dark, deep brown eyes. Markus was only two years younger than Jason who was thirty-one.
“Markus?” Jason wheezed
“That’s right Jase, it’s me. Jesus Jase you look terrible.”
Jason’s parents had adopted Markus when Jason was only four so he had known him his whole life.
“Soldier, do you know this man?”
“Yes Sir, he’s my brother.”
“Well Jason isn’t it a small world?” Eln smirked and turned back away in his chair.
Markus opened up the medical kit and took out some wipes and wiped away the dried blood on Jason’s face.
“So how have you been Jason?”
“What does it look like?” Jason coughed
“Good point you look like it’s been ****.”
Markus pulled Jason off the cold metal floor and onto the wooden bench that was in the cell and started to apply clean dressings to his wounds. Jason’s eyes started to flicker; he was going to pass out, Markus performed a quick, sharp slap on his face waking him up.
“Come on stay with me Jase. Colonel what the hell did your boys do to him? He’s nearly dead Sir.”
Colonel Eln rose from his chair and walked over to the door of the cell.
“Lieutenant do whatever it takes to keep him alive for now, and as for what my boys did to him, well that is none of your business, now get back to work.”
Markus turned back to Jason and set up a drip hanging from the bars of the cell.
“Markus…”
“What is it buddy?”
“Can you get me a drink?”
“Sure thing.”
Markus reached around his utility belt and found a black canteen and poured some icy water into Jason’s mouth.
“Sir that’s just about all I can do for him.”
“Well put that chloroform to use soldier, we can’t have him knowing where he is.”
Markus reached for the bottle and soaked the rag again.
“Sorry Jase.”
Markus then put the rag over Jason’s nose and mouth and yet again everything went black.
Back at FOB Resolute Jim was pacing the floor of the unit’s quarters and Southman was taking his anger out on an improvised punching bag in an improvised gym. Meanwhile Liv was being worried over in the hospital. She had four or five doctors standing over her bed arguing with Lachlan.
“Colonel she needs to be sent home for proper treatment!”
“And I say she gets treated here and stays here!”
“Sir she can’t get the treatment she needs here!”
Lachlan stepped toward the weedy framed doctor.
“Doctor she is one of the most important people in Afghanistan, we need her here!”
“Well she’s just one important person whose going home.”
“Okay smart fella step outside with me for a moment.”
Lachlan literally dragged the doctor outside into the heat.
“Now listen here! One of our men is being held captive and we need her to get him back! Would you deny a man’s freedom based on the fact that you think she needs to go home?”
“Sir I don’t follow your orders! She is going home!”
Lachlan lost his temper laying into the defenceless doctor with his fists. Challen hit the doctor repeatedly in the face and then stood up and looked down at the bleeding man.
“Doctor, a man’s life hangs in the balance right now and it just so happens to be, that that man and Lieutenant Coln love each other, now if that was me in Liv’s position I’d be pissed off, so if I were you, I’d watch out because when Liv is pissed off she has potential to kill.”
“She stays Sir.”
“I thought so.”
Jason woke up to the feeling of have the needle that was connected to the drip being ripped out of his arm. He was then grabbed by two men and dragged out of the plane and across a tarmac. It was dark so he couldn’t tell where he was, the only thing he did know was that he had left Afghanistan a few hours ago. He was dragged through a building he didn’t recognise at all. Jason was thrown through a door in which was a room that contained two chairs and a table; interrogation time.
Eln walked into the room purposefully stood over Jason and summoned in two masked men.
“Soldier! How do you expect me to speak to him when he’s slumped on the floor like that? Put him on the chair for Christ’s sake.”
The two men roughly threw Jason on to the folding chair that was in front of the table.
“So Captain, I never knew you had a brother, I was always under the illusion that you were an only child.”
“Colonel, Markus is my adoptive brother, I’m not blood related to him at all.”
“So he knows nothing of the password?”
“Nothing.”
“Well let’s cut to the chase, Jason what is the password?”
“I’ll tell you the password, the password is **** you! That’s what it is!”
Eln stood up to strike Jason when one of the masked men grabbed his wrist; Markus.
“What the hell are you playing at?”
“I’ve stood bystander for long! I’m not going to let you hit my brother!”
As if right on time Jason heard an enormous boom and then gun shots; they’d come for him. In an instant Lachlan busted down the door of the interrogation room and fired two shots into Eln’s torso, dropping him to the floor instantly. Markus let go of Eln and put Jason over his shoulder and ran toward the exit with Lachlan, Southman, Jim and Liv.
“Come on! Head for the plane.”
The group headed for the huge 747 that was idling on the runway of the airport. Markus scaled the staircase two steps at a time behind the others before bursting into the empty plane. James Kennelly had recovered and was out of hospital and behind the controls of the great plane, the whole unit was there.
When inside the plane Lachlan marched over towards where Markus was standing over Jason.
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Markus Bowen. Sir!”
“Bowen? Are you at all related to Jason?”
“He’s my brother Sir.”
“You’re lying, Jason was an only child!”
“I was adopted into his family.”
“Challen settle down, it’s true, Markus is my adoptive brother.”
“Jase!”
Liv rushed to Jason’s side, kissing him gently on the cheek.
“God I thought I’d lost you.”
“You would’ve if wasn’t for Markus.”
Markus just stood there looking down at Jason.
“Well I’d like to stay and have a chat but I feel like **** and I would like to get some proper sleep.”
Southman and Jim helped Jase up and walked him to one of the bunks.
When Jason woke the scene in the plane had changed dramatically, there was people walking around busy as a bee and others just sitting around relaxing and there was now a light weight armoured vehicle in the cargo hold.
When he was fully awake Jason walked slowly toward where he had seen Eln relaxing earlier, only now he saw Jim, Bird and Southman.
“Well you’re up to walking now?”
“Yeah I still feel like I’ve got a hangover times twelve.”
“Yeah well you look like it too.”
“Thanks.”
“Oi Jase! You want something to eat?”
“Yeah I’m starving!”
Markus walked over from the kitchen part of the plane and dropped a bowl of soggy Weetabix on the table in front of Jason.
“Sorry it’s all we’ve got.”
Jason sat and stared at the bowl of mush in front of him before pushing it away.
“Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for cardboard.”
“Jase you need to eat it, you haven’t eaten anything since you left Afghanistan.”
“I’ll be fine that was only a few hours ago.”
Liv looked at Jim with a concerned expression.
“Jase, that was three days ago.”
“Oh wow, now I really feel hungry.”
Jason picked up the spoon and pulled the bowl closer to him and started shovelling the slop into his mouth.
Lachlan walked over and greeted Jason by giving him a sharp slap on the back making Jason gag on the food in his mouth.
“Ahem. Hello Lachlan.” He said while clearing his throat.
“Hello Jason, how are you?”
“Better.”
“Good.”
“What happened back in where ever we were?”
“Well Jason you were in Saudi Arabia back when Eln had you.’
“****. Oh and where are we headed now?”
“Well I understand you have a friend named Dudsey.”
“Yeah but I don’t know where he is.”
“We do, we just found out he’s in Germany, and we’ve even gotten in contact with him.”
Dudsey was a good friend of Jason’s; his proper name was Phillip Duddle. Phillip was an average heighted man who had golden blonde hair and to be honest he was a bit of a larrikin but was a master with explosives and artillery.
“Well how far are we from Germany?”
Lachlan pressed an intercom switch and spoke into it.
“James what’s the ETA in Germany?”
The intercom buzzed with a response a moment later.
“Ten minutes Sir.”
“Alright then ladies, pack your **** we’re going site seeing!”
With that the whole plane came alive and men were everywhere packing combat items and even personal effects.
Lachlan rose from his chair and shouted above the noise.
“Ladies and gentlemen may I inform you that we will be under cover so dress in civilian attire, but that is not a reason as to not to carry a weapon.”
The silver painted 747 touched grounds at the Frankfurt airport and the men and women that were on the plane unloaded and headed for the airport building passports in hand.
“Oi Jase how are we going to get past customs with all these weapons?”
“We’ll go to customs and ask to speak to someone in charge.”
Jason and Liv went to the same terminal when a customs officer stopped them.
“Bitte kommen diese weg für ein willkürlich tüte überprüfen.”
Translation: please come this way for a random bag check.
“Jason what do we do?”
“Just go with it for now. Okay.”
The pair followed the customs officer over to a bench where they were then ordered to put their luggage on the table. When the official opened the bag his eyes widened when he saw the F88 assault rifle, the two pistols along with the grenades.
“Sprechen zee deutsch?”
Translation: do you speak German?
“Ein Kleine.”
Trans: A little.
Jason slowly said his German phrases to the officer.
“Ich sprechen Englisch.”
Trans: I speak English
The officer immediately changed from speaking German to speaking English.
“So Mr…”
“Bowen.”
“So Mr Bowen why do you have so many undeclared weapons in your luggage?”
“Before we move on I would like to speak to someone in charge.”
“Mr Bowen I am in charge, I am the head customs officer.”
“Well I would like to explain things in private then, away from the wrong ears.”
The officer eyed Liv and Jason for a moment.
“Okay then and by the way my name is Christofer König.”
Christofer lead Liv and Jason down a long hallway and into an interview room. Before sitting down Jason placed the pistol that he had tucked into the belt of his jeans on the table in front of Christofer.
“So Mr Bowen would you tell as for the reason for all the undeclared weapons in your bags?”
“I’ll tell you as long as you promise that whatever I tell you in this room stay a secret, no one can find out.”
“You have my word Mr Bowen.”
“Okay my name is Captain Jason Bowen and this is Lieutenant Olivia Coln, we are in the Australian Special Forces.”
“Well Captain I know who you are now, you are here to speak to a man named Phillip Duddle aren’t you?”
“Well Yes.”
Jason was blown back as to how much Christofer knew.
“Captain I had been speaking with Phillip, and I was told to let you and your unit through customs without any problems.”
“Well thank you.”
“Oh and Captain if you ever need anything in Germany let me know and I’ll have it.”
“A black market man hey?”
Christofer leaned back in his chair and smiled.
Fifteen minutes later all of the unit members were standing outside the airport climbing into a rental bus.
Jason drove the bus in silence along a suburban street until he arrived at two storey brick house with a white picket fence.
“Is this it Jase?”
“Liv I know Dudsey, he wouldn’t live somewhere obvious. Alright everyone stay on the bus I’ll call you over shortly.”
Jason stepped off the bus and walked to the front door of the house and knocked. Moments later a man opened the door.
“Jason!” Dudsey opened his arms and gave Jase a big bear hug.
“Good to see you too Dudsey.”
“Jason don’t just stand there in the cold come in.”
“Well I hope you don’t mind a few extras.”
“Of course not Nadine is always expecting visitors.”
Jason waved his arm at the bus, signalling for the men to come to the house. One by one twelve men stepped off the bus and made a bee line straight for the house.
continue to part 3

[allyb646]

“Well Jason you certainly bought extras. Come in come in.”
Jason walked through the house behind Phillip and into a large kitchen area.
“Nadine we have visitors, lots of them.”
Nadine was a tall, thin woman with long black hair; she spoke with a flowing Italian accent.
“Jason do you remember my wife Nadine.”
“It’s a pleasure Mrs Duddle.”
“The same.”
“And these are my children, as I see your friends have already met them.”
Jim and Southman were sitting on plastic chairs in a play room showing the eldest Isabella and the youngest Tomas how to pull a coin out their ear.
“Come onto the balcony we will talk there.”
Jason followed Phillip out onto the wooden veranda.
“So Jason what trouble have you gotten yourself into now?”
“Do you know of a person by the name of Colonel Peter Eln?”
“Yes I do and I can tell you, he’s an arsehole.”
“Yeah I found that out the hard way.”
“Why what’s happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
Jason explained the events that took place in the past two months and particularly the ones in the past week.
“Well my friend if you have come looking for help you have come to the right place. You and your men can stay here as long as you need.”
“Thank you Phil.”
Phillip leaned against the railing of the balcony and looked through the glass door into the busy house. Phillip took a long draw on his cigarette.
“You know you should give that up.”
“Yes I know, but it’s not that easy you know.”
Jason gazed through the glass door at Liv, who was standing in the kitchen talking to Nadine.
“I see you looking at her you know.”
“I was just glad I didn’t lose her this time.”
“Do you like her, Jason?”
“Like her? I love her; she’s someone that when I’m around I don’t feel normal.”
“My friend you are not mistaken, when you feel like that around a woman it means love. I myself feel that way around Nadine, the only question is though; does she love you?”
“I hope so; I guess we will find out soon wont we?”
Jason walked inside and stood in the kitchen next to Liv.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, I would just like to thank Mrs Duddle for her hospitality as it looks like we will be staying here for a couple of days.”
“Jason anything for you, and please call me Nadine, you have known Phillip and I for years you can call me by my first name.”
“Hang on Jase how are we going to fit all the men in this house?”
“Ha-ha Olivia, you are funny, Jason and Phillip have had twice as many men stay in the house, we are always prepared you know. Jason, show Olivia the cellar.”
Jason grabbed Liv’s hand and showed her to the cellar. The cellar was much bigger than Liv had expected, it stretched for the length and width of the house and then further, the walls were lined with beds which each had set of drawers and a lamp beside them.
“What?”
“As Nadine said, they are always prepared.”
“This is huge!”
“Oh. That’s not all.”
Jason led Liv through a door and into an even bigger living area which was secretly buried beneath a quiet suburban street.
“What the…”
“I’m not finished.”
Jason took Liv through another this time leading into a tiled room which had six separated showers and six toilet cubicles on the other side of the room.
“I’m very familiar with this place.”
“Why?”
“Because on a previous mission, me and twenty three other men were wanted criminals in three of Germany’s sounding countries, and at that time German officials were looking for us too, so we lived down here for four months, Phillip and Nadine brought us supplies once a week.”
“Wow.”
“Well this time we are only going to be in here for a few days.”
Jason and Liv headed back up the stairs toward the noisy house. Jason summoned Nadine and Phillip into an empty sitting room. Phillip sat down on an arm chair next to Nadine, Jason and Liv sat down on a brown leather lounge.
“What did you want to speak to us about Jason?”
“Well Phil, I want to tell you that this is probably some of the worst **** I’ve ever been in.”
“And?”
“And I want you, Nadine and the kids to have some security, as my presence here may be endangering your lives. Phil, we are going to leave you with €1000, and we are leaving you with our armoured vehicle and a few pistols, just in case Eln comes here looking for me. If he does come here I want you to get across the border and into France, I have a friend who will protect you, he’s in Strasbourg and his name is Jonathan Stevenson.”
“Jason if anything happens I want to go with you.”
“But what about Nadine and the kids?”
“They will flee to Strasbourg like you said.”
“Alright.”
“Hang on what makes you think Eln will come? I mean, you told me Lachlan shot him.”
“Yeah but we’ve already got word that said that Eln is alive, Colonel Eln is like a savage dog, if you kick him he wants to bite you, and by my guesses he wants to bite me pretty hard.”
It was late at night and Nadine had cooked up a feast for the men to have. So by eleven o’ clock all the men had gone down into the cellar and gone to bed. It was almost two o’ clock when Jason was woken by a loud banging sound coming from the door. Phillip appeared in the door of the cellar and tiptoed over toward Jason and spoke to him in a whisper.
“Jason what do I do? There is a man standing at the front door.”
“What does he look like?”
“Short grey hair, average height, kind of muscly.”
“That’s Eln. Phillip get Nadine and the kids I need to speak to them.”
Jason woke up Liv first and went from bed to bed waking up all of the men. He then headed up the stairs to the sitting room where he had spoken to Nadine and Phillip. When he arrived he saw Nadine and the kids sitting on the leather lounge in their pyjamas.
“Nadine I need you to get the kids and their clothes and anything you want to take.”
“Why Jason? What’s happened?”
“Eln is here.”
Jason ushered the children into their bedrooms and helped them shove all of their clothes and some toys into their suit cases, when the eldest: Isabella stopped and looked at Jason.
“Jason?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.
“What is it Izzy?”
“Where are we going?”
“You and your mother are going on a holiday to a place called Strasbourg in France.”
Isabella nodded drowsily at Jason and started putting on fresh clothes.
When Jason was done he went back to the sitting room with the kids who had their suitcases packed tightly and Nadine walked into the room carrying a small suitcase.
“Nadine here is the €1000 I promised you earlier, use it in emergencies, oh and I would like you to carry this at all times.”
Jason handed Nadine a glock pistol. She took it carefully and placed it in her hand bag. Jason and Phillip then rushed them to the downstairs garage where the armoured vehicle was parked. Nadine and the children got into the car and buckled themselves in.
“Nadine I don’t want you to go until I give you the message. Okay.”
Jason handed Nadine a compact hand UHF frequency radio. Phillip kissed both of his children and his wife and left up to go and get ready.
Jason left the garage and headed up stairs, Eln was banging on the door impatiently.
“Bowen! I know you’re in there you little ****! And if you don’t come out soon, I’m coming in.”
Ten minutes had passed and all of Jason’s unit were upstairs, wearing black combats Liv signalled that they were ready. Jason waved Southman over.
“Southman I want you to go with Nadine and the kids. Get them across the border safely and keep them out of harm’s way.”
“Yes Sir, oh and good luck on the road ahead.”
“You too.”
Southman headed down into the garage and got into the driver’s seat of the car. Jason spoke into his radio.
“Can you hear me Southman?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Okay don’t leave until I give the signal okay.”
“Righto.”
Jason walked over to the front door and waved everyone over.
“Jason what do we do about Eln?”
“Okay we wait till he busts down the door, you guys get out then and I’ll hold him back for a few minutes.”
“No! You can’t do that! I’m not going to lose you again.”
“Liv, you’re not going to lose me; Eln is by himself and he’s injured, I can take him.”
“But you are injured too.”
“Not as badly as him.”
“Alright.”
Just as Liv said that Eln busted down the door with his foot. Jason leapt on to Eln, tackling him to the concrete just outside the door. When Jason got a free hand he called into his radio.
“Southman! Go go go! Get out of here!”
And with that Jason saw the light weight car burst out of the garage and zoom off down the road at breakneck speed.
When Jason went back to fighting with Eln, they had brought the fight out on to lawn in the driving rain; eventually the whole neighbourhood was awake.
Eln drove his fist hard into Jason’s nose and Jason retaliated by driving Eln into the brick fence, Eln let out a painful scream just as he hit the wall, his wounds causing him pain.
No sooner than two minutes after the fight had started men from all of the neighbouring houses started to come out with flash lights and wooden bats.
“Welche’s üblich auf? “ The first man called.
Trans: What’s going on?
Another man tried to separate Eln and Jason.
“Fick weg!”
Trans: **** off!
The man that tried to intervene stepped away and let Jason and Eln fight it out. Jason had made one vital mistake, when he had left the house he had left all of his weapons with Liv. Jason rolled around in the mud before landing a blow that knocked Eln out cold. Jase stood up and bound Eln’s hands together with handcuffs before stealing an unlocked car on the street and driving toward the airport, leaving his spectators in the rain, their mouths agape at what they had just seen.
Jason’s stolen Honda Civic busted through the airport gates catching the security guards by surprise. Two Humvees whizzed past the guards after the civic chasing it down the runway towards the waiting 747. Jason keyed his radio.
“James I’m not going to be able to board while you’re stationary with these Humvees on my tail, I want you to start taxiing now.”
“Righto Boss.”
James pushed forward on the plane’s throttle, and Jason gave chase in the tiny Honda civic.
“Liv!”
“Yes Jason?”
“I want you to open the door of the plane and lower a rope ladder down for me.”
“On it!”
Jason saw Liv open the door carefully and lower the rope ladder so that it skimmed along the ground.
Jason accelerated and lined up the small car with the rope ladder. Jason planted a house brick that he had stopped to steal from a construction site on the accelerator and started to climb out the window. Bullets whizzed past Jason as ascended on the ladder. Jason then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason I can’t do this anymore, I have to power up to take off, and I’m running out of runway.”
“Do it then James!”
Jason quickly climbed the last rungs of the ladder and landed on the floor of the plane, his chest heaving. When he opened his eyes he saw Liv standing over him smiling.
“Well you just made quite an entrance.”
“Yeah it felt like it.”
“Oi Jase where are we off to now? James called from the cockpit.
“Back to Australia.”
The silver 747 made a bee line straight for Australia.
“Hey how are you going?”
Liv sat down beside Jason who was sitting at a table with his head in his hands.
“Fine.”
Jason’s voice sounded cagey.
“Jason what’s on your mind?”
Jason sighed. “Liv I just don’t know what to do next.”
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll find out as soon as we get back.”
“Yeah I hope so.”
The silver 747 was flying over India when at around 0500 hours the plane’s instruments started screaming at James.
“Sir we have a missile locked on to us. What do I do?”
Lachlan’s eyes darted back and forth searching for answers. But before he could reply an enormous boom was heard back in the cargo hold. Everyone was woken by the explosion but in a blink of an eye the great plane had careered in the side of a mountain, no one had time to brace themselves.
In the crash Jason was thrown from his bunk, he landed safely but when the plane impacted with the earth it brought down the steel frame of the bunks on top of Jason’s right leg with crushing force.
When Jason wearily opened his eyes he saw the plane in total disarray. There were bodies everywhere and other people who had not been harmed in the crash rushed about the plane helping the wounded. All Jason could hear was the ringing in his ears and beyond that a faint, painful scream. At first he thought it was someone else but then as he came to his senses he realised that the painful scream was indeed his own.
“Jase!” Liv screamed as she ran to Jason’s side. “We need a medivac here now, we have six wounded men.” Liv was shouting into her headset.
It only took ten minutes for the medivac plane to arrive, but to Jason who was lying trapped under the crushing weight of the bunk in his world of agony; it seemed like a life time.
When the paramedics arrived in the wreckage, two headed straight for Jason who was lying on the floor screaming. The bunk was too heavy for just two men to lift so the paramedics used a hydraulic jack to lift the beds of Jason’s broken leg. As soon as the beds lifted of his leg Jason let out a high pitched shriek; the pain worsening as the pressure was released. When the beds were off Jason, the paramedics got to work and within ten minutes he was being loaded into medical plane only to meet a wiry haired doctor with an English accent.
The doctor looked Jason up and down, and then his attention was drawn to Jason’s severely broken leg. Jason’s leg was coloured black and it had a grotesque bone sticking out of his calf muscle. There wasn’t much the doctor could do for him until he arrived at hospital, so morphine was injected and the pain dulled. Two hours later Jason went into shock; the wound on his leg was slowly giving him blood poisoning.
“Alright doc what can you do to save him?”
“Colonel, I’m sure you’re not going to like my answer but it’s the only option.”
“Well?”
The doctor took a deep breath as if preparing for a beating.
“Sir, I'm going to have to amputate his leg just below the knee.”
Liv looked at the doctor with a look of horror spread across her face.
“The only thing is Colonel, We ran out of anaesthetic; we are going to have to do it now and he will be awake to see it.”
The Colonel sighed and agreed to help.
Two of the paramedics moved Jason to an improvised operation table while Liv stood back still horrified as to what they were going to do to her Jason. The doctor turned around and looked at Liv.
“Oi do you know him? Is he your boyfriend or something?”
Liv nodded.
“Well then I’m going to need you over here.’
Liv walked over to Jason.
“Alright if I’m going to do this I need you to hold his hand and talk to him, try to keep him calm, alright?”
Liv took Jason’s pale hand and held it tight.
“Alright Jase you’re going to get through this.”
The doctor put a tourniquet around Jason’s leg, cutting off the blood supply.
“Alright I’m going in.”
The operation took twenty minutes, but after five Jason passed out. When the doctor was done he dressed the bloody stump that was the remains of Jason’s leg. In four more hours the medivac plane would be landing in Melbourne airport.
“****!”
“What is it?”
“Sir due to the Melbourne Cup we can’t get the ambulances through the gates.”
“Why?”
“Because apparently the loading bay is packed with horse floats.”
“Well can we try to get them out?”
“Colonel I've already tried that, and even if they did try, they wouldn’t be out in time.”
“Well what can we do?”
“Sir the only thing we can do is take them directly through the airport. The ambulances are waiting out the front.”
“Alright then.”
The plane was coming down to land and Liv was on the phone to the airport trying to clear a path through the airport. Shortly after the plane landed it taxied to the passenger ramp. When the doors opened paramedics pushed six stretchers through the airport, ignoring customs who obviously were not alerted about what was going on.
After the stretchers were off the plane the rest of the soldiers poured off, still in full combat attire, still holding their F88’s. At the sight of the soldiers who were wearing face masks and no identification, a woman screamed. Liv walked wirily over to the hysterical woman.
“Ma’am can you please calm down, nothing is happening.”
“What’s with the guns?” The woman screamed.
“Ma’am we are Australian army, and if you don’t calm down, you’ll put the whole airport into lockdown. We have some seriously wounded men who need to get to hospital so please calm down.”
Liv left the woman and headed towards Jason’s stretcher and walked along side. Bystanders stood and watched the slow precession, some disgusted at the sight others peering over shoulders to get a glance at the injured. The stretchers were wheeled out into the sunlight and loaded into the ambulances, Liv was about to climb into the ambulance with Jase when someone stopped her.
“Excuse me ma’am you can’t come in, it’s for wounded only.”
“I’m his girlfriend, so I’m going with him whether you like it or not.”
“We can’t take you. There’s not enough room.”
Excuse me, is there a problem?” Lachlan stood over the two paramedics. “I believe that Lieutenant Coln requested to travel with Captain Bowen.”
“Fine, she can come.”
The paramedic walked away swearing under his breath. Jason and Liv where then driven to the hospital where Jason’s leg was cleaned up and two weeks later he was fitted with a brand new carbon fibre leg. Jason’s new leg wasn’t like others it had been customised, it didn’t have a standard foot, instead it was a modified athlete’s leg like the ones you see in the Paralympics, except it was less curved and had a flat rubber stopper on the end enabling Jason to run, walk, ride a motorcycle, drive a car and other things. He was also given a normal carbon fibre leg with a foot for formal purposes.
Another week had passed and the doctor cleared Jason to attempt walking. Jason clipped the leg to the metal rod protruding from his knee and slowly stood up beside the bed using liv as support. Jim and Southman had also taken a day off work to come and see the milestone. Jim stood at the end of the bed next to Southman holding a video recorder, capturing the event on camera.
Jason stood up and made an attempt to step, but he was too wobbly; he miss judged his step and tumbled to the floor. After having a leg removed, walking was proving to be more of a challenge than anticipated. After he collected himself Jason stood up and took another careful step and then another, he was walking.
Days passed and with each day Jason walked further, from walking a few steps in the first days to walking to the nurses’ station to then walking all the way down to the main reception of the hospital.
After a few days of this Jason was discharged from hospital. He travelled straight to his barracks where in his apartment he found a note on the pillow. It read:
Captain Jason Bowen,
Well that last incident was absolutely spectacular, I didn’t think you would pull through that one, turns out you are quite the escape artist. What I would like you to know is that I’m watching you right now, I can see you reading this note.
Now it might seem confusing that at the beginning of all this my men fired a hail of bullets at you, seemingly aiming to kill, but in fact my bullets only maim, they are coated in a dry acid that when it comes into contact with moister it causes excruciating pain; you were lucky Jason, on that first night when you were hit, you got a dud round, lucky; well your luck has run out, so when I get that password, I’m going to make it my goal to make you watch me have my way with your girl and then I’m going to kill her slowly, in the most painful way possible.
Colonel Peter Eln
P.S do you know where your girl is right now? Here’s a clue she’s unconscious on the floor of a holding cell.
The letter was haunting. When Jason finished reading he noticed two cameras in the corner of his room, in an instant Jason had plugged in a device that played a loop of Jason moving around the room and leaving and then returning. The cameras were blind to what was going on.
Jason stood up and took a deep breath before he heard an ear piercing shatter. A black hummer zoomed past Jason’s flat, the occupants hurling a brick through the window of Jason’s apartment.
When Jason picked up the brick it had an envelope tied to it, he bent over and tore open the envelope to have a small USB drive fall out onto his hand. Jason powered up his laptop and plugged in the USB, he then clicked on a video file to be greeted by Colonel Eln.
“Hello Jason, now I am sure that you are wondering where your beloved Olivia is. Are you? Well I would just like you to see this just so you know how serious I am about this. Jason I didn’t want this to be personal at the beginning; it wasn’t me who made it personal, it was you.”
The screen then changed to a security shot of a small room which had a person sitting on a chair their head slumped. When Jason looked closer to his horror he realized that it was the battered body of liv, a moment later he saw Eln walk in to the room, and after ten minutes of watching Jason could bear no more. Eln was torturing Liv and he wanted Jason to see it. To Jason’s horror; when he looked at the video file he noticed that it continued for two hours.
Jason immediately unplugged the USB and rushed over to Jim’s apartment.
He didn’t even knock; Jason just rushed in the door and found Jim standing in his kitchen holding his six month old son Heath, standing beside his wife Sarah.
“I’m sorry Sarah, I've got to talk to Jim it’s urgent.”
“That’s alright Jason.”
Sarah took up Heath from Jim and left the room.
“Jim you need to watch this.”
Jason pulled out his laptop and showed Jim the video. Turning away so he didn’t have to watch what Eln was doing to the lady he loved so much.
“Jase make yourself a cuppa or something, I’m going to have to watch the whole video file.”
Jason sat down while Jim watched the video. At one point Jason looked over his shoulder at the computer screen, in the corner of the video he saw a sign in another language.
“Jim pause the video now.” Jim paused the clip. “Okay now screen shot.” Jim made a screen shot and Jason took over on the computer. He opened the photo and zoomed into the sign in the corner.
“Holy ****.”
“What?”
“The sign, it’s in Arabic, it says interrogation room number three.”
“And…”
“And that’s the same room that Eln had me in back in Saudi Arabia.”
“You remember that?”
“How could I not?”
“Well what do we do now?”
“Get Lachlan, Southman and James, and tell them to meet me at my apartment.”
Twenty minutes later Jason was pacing the floor of his apartment when he heard a knock on the door.
“Come in!”
Challen, Southman and James stepped in the front door.
“What is it Jason?”
“Eln has Liv.”
“How can you be sure? I mean she only been gone a few days.”
“Yeah didn’t she go to see her mum or something?”
“I’m getting to it, you need to watch this.”
Jason showed the group the video, and after watching fifteen minutes of it, could bear no more.
“Do we know where he is holding her?”
“Yes we do, see the sign in the corner of the room.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s in Arabic. It translates to ‘interrogation room number three’”
“And this helps us how.”
“Be patient Kennelly, it helps us because that is the same room Eln had me in Back in Saudi Arabia.”
“Okay then, well when are we going to go and get her out.”
“As soon as we have the man power we need.”
“Who else do want to come with us?”
“Markus.”
As Challen, Southman and James left Jason had a thought to himself.
“Sit tight Liv, I’m coming for you.”
The group had landed in Saudi Arabia the night before and were now waiting patiently for nightfall in an underground drain underneath a private airstrip. The building in which held Liv, was 100 metres away from the man hole for the drain.
Why were they waiting? They were waiting for the sentries guarding the entrances to change shift; only then would there be an opening. Jason didn’t plan on just going in guns blazing, he had made a tactical plan, all six of the men had disguised themselves with the same uniform as the sentries, so when the shift changed over, they would all some out and wander the airstrip before coming toward the building for the shift change.
Markus sat in front of Jason inside the cramped drain, holding a small periscope out of the man hole.
“Alright they’re about to make the swap lets go.”
All six men climbed out of the drain one by one. Jason did one lap of the airstrip before heading toward the building.
When at the door Jason was about to walk past the guard, when he was stopped.
“Hold it!” Jason stopped and looked the sentry square in the eye. “I haven’t seen you before; are you new?”
“Yeah I just got here.”
“What’s your name?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton. And yours.”
“Sergeant Louis Dapper.”
Jason walked in the door of the building and headed straight for what looked like the guard’s mess.
Liv sat bruised and battered in the tiny interrogation room. There was one peculiar thing about the room though, unlike the rest of the building this room wasn’t under surveillance. Liv was still alive but only just, all because of the guard that had been appointed to her. For the past week the young soldier had been giving Liv half of his rations, he had known that Liv was innocent.
Jason was in the mess room scoping out the building; across the room he saw Jim speaking to one of the soldiers. Jason turned and headed down the spiralling staircase toward the lower level interrogation rooms. When he had reached the lower level he looked for the number three room; when he found it he saw a guard in front of the door speaking into the open hatch.
“Ahem.”
“Yes.”
“I’m here to relieve you for this shift.”
“And you are?”
“Lieutenant Jonathan Hamilton.”
“You must be the new guy.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway you need to check her pulse every fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.”
The young guard turned and left. Jason waited until he knew the guard was well and truly up the stairs and out of earshot, before quickly unlocking the door and falling to Liv’s side. For the next five minutes Jason sat with Liv in his arms, telling her he’d never let her go again.
Boom! Jason whipped around and heard a loud explosion and the angry shouts of men. He then heard his radio crackle.
“Jason it’s a bust, get Liv and get out of here!”
Jason scooped up liv and headed for the stairs before he was nearly knocked over by the Liv’s door guard from earlier.
“I don’t know who you guys are but your friends are in trouble up there.”
“Thank you.”
Jason went to walk past he guard when he was halted.
“Stop. Leave her here.”
“No.”
“Sir leave her here and get your friends out, I’ll look after her.”
“Then how will I know where to find her after I leave?”
“They are taking her to the Takla Makan desert after here.”
“Thank you, if you ever need a hand call me, my name’s Jason Bowen.”
Jason gave liv a quick kiss and handed her over to the guard. He then raced up the stairs to find Jim and a soldier brandishing a hunting knife in a close hand to hand combat battle. The soldier pulled a swift duck and weave manoeuvre and lodged the knife into Jim’s lower back. Jason wasn’t quick enough to stop the attack but he was quick enough to blow the brains of the man out with his pistol.
Jason pulled out his radio and called in the others.
“Southman, Markus, James, where are you?”
“We are outside on the tarmac in the white sukhoi.”
Jason put the wounded Jim over his shoulder and raced out onto the tarmac and darted straight for the waiting plane. Once inside Jason put Jim down who was bleeding profusely and screaming in agony. Jason ripped off Jim’s flak vest and located the wound; as soon as Jason applied pressure to the wound Jim stopped crying out and stopped moving around.
“Jim?”
Markus cut in. “Jim can you feel your legs?”
“No.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?”
“No.”
“****!”
“Alright can you use your arms?”
Jim responded by wiggling his fingers and waving his arms.
“Jason keep pressure on the wound.”
“Southman help me put him on a spinal board.”
Southman and Markus log rolled Jim onto a spinal board; careful as to not move his head around too much.
A week later Jim was in the hospital and the doctors a diagnosed him as paralysed; Jim would spend the rest of his days in a wheel chair and Jason blamed himself for it.
Every night when Jason attempted sleeping, he thought about Liv and how because of him; Jim would never walk again. Jason didn’t know what to do; he knew that Liv was rotting in a cell in the middle of the cold unforgiving Takla Makan desert in western China, and he knew that Jim was stuck in a rigid hospital bed unable to move the lower half of his body.
In the middle of the night Jason heard a knock on the door, he was surprised to see a familiar face when he opened it.
“Crash.”
“Lachlan.”
“Sorry to wake you Jase but it turns out the door guard was correct.”
“Yep Liv really is in the middle of the Takla Makan desert.”
“Do we know where?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay then I’m leaving tonight.”
“Jase, you’re not going alone.”
“No I won’t endanger anyone else.”
“Jason you don’t have a choice, Southman, Markus and I are coming with you.”
“No you’re not.”
“Too late I’ve already booked tickets to China.”
Jason sat on top of a four wheeled motorbike. He looked out into the vastness of the Takla Makan, the place was 1600, 000Km in total. The name said it all, Takla Makan means “place from which there is no return.”
Jason shivered at the sight of the snow covered sand dunes and the occasional shrub covered with icicles. In the distance Jason spotted a convoy of cargo trucks through his digital binoculars. He turned to Lachlan who was on his own ATV.
“I think we’ve found it.”
“Yep, when we arrive, send the coordinates to James he’s been flying around waiting for a signal.”
“Right, Southman we are going to follow but at a 1km radius ok?”
“Righto Boss.”
Jason, Lachlan, Markus and Southman powered up their four wheelers and followed the convoy to a setting of ancient ruins, but once the trucks drove in they didn’t come out the other side. Something suss was going on.
When Jason felt it was safe to go and explore the ruins he saw what was inside…
Nothing just a bare patch of dirt, no tire tracks or anything. Where could have convoy gone if it wasn’t here? Jason and Markus searched the area for anything that looked suspicious.
Jason was walking around the main area when he stumbled on a ledge in the floor, when Jason looked closer he saw that there was an empty void underneath the ledge.
“Oi have a look at this.”
The others came over and Markus helped Jason lift the ledge. When it opened Jason saw that it was an underground ramp. It wasn’t anything fancy just a well-disguised hatch.
The four ventured forward into the pitch blackness of the tunnel. At the end the group came to a cavern of some sort. Southman had been about to light a flare when Jason stopped him.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because. Can you see the yellow glow?”
“Yeah.”
“That means someone was here not that long ago.”
The group donned their NVG’s and the cavern was plunged into a neon green vortex.
“You were right Jase they’re still here.”
Through the night vision Jason could see six white figures in the distance, but one was carrying something on their shoulder it looked like a limp human.
“Liv.”
That one word echoed around the cavern and in an instant the place erupted in gun fire. The man carrying Liv dropped her next to the wall as Lachlan returned fire.
“Jason! Disappear and go get Liv!”
Jason sunk back and skirted around the cavern walls and until he saw Liv. When he saw her he was shocked, she was battered and bruised and barely alive, she still wore the blue jeans and white T-shirt she had worn to go and see her mother two weeks ago.
Jason picked her up and ran as fast as he could. He could hear Eln shouting in the distance.
“What the **** are you doing he’s getting away!”
Jason called in to James who was waiting for the signal in a C-17 globe master cargo jet.
“James I need you to land now, it’s gonna be a hairy take off.”
“Yes Sir. I’ll be on the ground by the time you’re out.”
“Lachlan, Southman, Markus! Let’s go.”
The group headed back up the eerie black ramp toward he ruins where James would be waiting.
When they reached the top a whole unit of men were waiting and firing on them. Jason and the others had to duck behind some cargo crates for cover. They were trapped; the men waiting for them were between themselves and the C-17 and Eln and the rest of his men were coming up the ramp. Jason only had thirty seconds to make a decision. Too late Eln’s men came out of the hatch and fired on the Jason and the others. They were cut down by the F88 assault rifles all but one, Eln. Eln dove for cover behind the ancient stone wall.
“Alright, we’re going nowhere like this we need to run now.”
Lachlan gave Jason a quick no before getting up on his haunches and running behind Jason firing at the same time. Jason was running behind Southman when Southman’s back exploded in a splash of red.
“Lachlan get Liv to the plane.”
Jason handed Liv over to Lachlan before dragging Southman back toward the cargo crates. When he turned his head he saw the man who had shot Southman, Eln was standing across the battlefield with a sawn-off shotgun and a grin on his face. Jason stood up and raised his Desert Eagle and pulled the trigger.
“You slimy mother ****er.” BAM!
Eln was blown off his feet; his entire chest exploding with the impact of the 50. Calibre round.
Jason turned back toward Southman who was on the ground, the life slowly seeping out in the form of blood.
“Southman? Jayden answer me.”
“Jase. It’s all over now we have Liv back.”
“Don’t worry about that now. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Southman stopped writhing in pain and broad smile stretched across his face, he was in another place now; he wasn’t dying in a cold unforgiving desert amongst a fire fight, but he was somewhere else somewhere where he was happy.
And without ceremony Corporal Jayden ‘Southman’ Cobalt died. Jason scooped up his body and just walked out into the battle field. All the gunfire ceased as it was over and everyone just watched as a lone soldier carry his dead friend to the waiting plane.
When Jason got back to Australia he made his personal mission to deliver the news to Southman’s parents personally. He didn’t want them to receive a letter telling them that their only son had been killed in action. So Jason dressed in his dress uniform stood at the front door of the Cobalt’s house with a folded Australian flag. He then rang the doorbell.
In the coming months Southman’s military and family funerals were held and soon after Jason and Liv both resigned from the Special Forces. Three weeks after they resigned Jason and Liv were married on a small farm just outside Olivia’s hometown.