Cut Out by Bob Mayer

Author:Bob Mayer [Mayer, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Mysteries & Thrillers
Publisher: Cool Gus Publishing
Published: 2013-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

CAMP MACKALL

31 OCTOBER, 8:45 a.m.

Riley parked just inside the gate to the Nicholas M. Rowe compound. Two MH-47 helicopters squatted like large green grasshoppers outside the compound gate on the large helipad, their motionless dual rotors drooping halfway to the ground.

Riley tried the Selection and Assessment shack first. S & A was the cadre that ran potential Special Forces students into the ground on a daily basis. The few people in the shack didn’t know where the crews were for the helicopters. Walking out the door of S & A, Riley scanned the compound and spotted what he was looking for. Two 292 antennae were jury-rigged on the south side, poking up above the buildings. Riley tracked the wires from the antennae into a building.

Two NCOs were sitting in front of a bank of radios, monitoring a Q-course Phase 13 exercise. On the far side of the open bay building, several men in flight suits were lounging about on a row of cots. Riley made a beeline for one of the men; there were four dots on the silver bar pinned to his maroon beret, which protruded from a side pocket.

Riley nodded at the higher-ranking warrant officer. “Hey, Chief, how’s it going?”

The man’s name tag identified him as Chief Warrant Officer Prowley. “All right.”

Riley glanced at the map pinned to the corkboard on the wall. “You flying missions for Phase 13?”

“Yeah, we got six exfiltrations tonight.”

“Uwharrie National Forest?”

Prowley nodded. “Four of them. Two in Pisgah.”

“You out of Fort Campbell?”

“Yep.” Prowley still hadn’t moved from the cot.

“When do you head back there?”

“Tonight, after we bring the last load back here.”

Riley sat down next to Prowley and pulled out a 1:250,000 scale map of North Carolina and Tennessee. “Listen, I’m with A Company, First Battalion, and we’ve got a last-minute tasking to run an escape and evasion mission for one of our deployed teams. I was wondering if you all could help us out tonight.”

Prowley looked at Riley, then glanced a few cots over to where an officer lay sleeping, a maroon beret covering his face, the gold leaf of a major’s insignia gleaming on the 160th Task Force’s cloth shield. “I don’t know. The major might not be too keen on it. You know how the army works. Got to plan taskings half a lifetime in advance and all that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Riley said. “But I got this one dumped on me by my major, and he isn’t the sort you want to go back to and say you couldn’t get something done.”

Prowley nodded in commiseration. “I know how that goes. What’s the mission?”

“Three pax, myself being one of them. Pickup at the helipad here when you drop off your last load, and drop us off here.” Riley pointed at the map. “It shouldn’t be too much out of your way, and it would really help me out.”

Prowley looked at the location. “That’s pretty much on our flight path back. I guess we could do it. You have a landing zone there?”

“No.

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