Operation Exodus by Gene Masters

Author:Gene Masters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Action, Action and adventure, Middle East, Navy SEALs, Rescue, Intrigue, Suspense
Publisher: Escarpment Press
Published: 2019-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

20

En Route to Diego Garcia

It was 9,700-or-so miles to Diego Garcia from Virginia. Jake and his team boarded the huge Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at Langley Air Force Base, a five-hour car ride north from Little Creek.

The Air Force lieutenant colonel who piloted the beast was surprised to find that his cargo was just six men with full pack. His two hundred million dollar-plus aircraft, after all, was designed to carry a hundred and thirty troops and all their equipment.

“You guys must have some important work to do,” he volunteered, eyeing their M4a1 special operations rifles and night-vision gear. Jake started to say something, but the pilot held up his hand and said, “No, I don’t want to know, Lieutenant. It’s probably way above my pay grade, anyway. Strap in, guys. I can’t promise you comfort, but I can promise you wheels down in Diego Garcia in about twelve hours. The weather looks good, and we’re cleared to thirty-eight thousand feet, all the way to DG. Sleep if you can, but there’s no smoking. There’s some coffee and some sandwiches and snacks forward, just aft of the cockpit, and you’re welcome to them. See you in DG.” With that, he gave them a sloppy salute and went forward to join the rest of the aircraft’s crew.

“Doesn’t seem like such a bad guy for a cake-eater,” Cole volunteered. The team members snickered. SEALs considered themselves vastly superior to any other military unit, and especially looked down on anything Air Force. An Air Force Combat Control Team, Jake knew, might give them an argument.

“Now, now, Chief,” Jake said, “remember that the cake-eaters and us, we all report to the same CINC [Commander-In-Chief].” Cole scowled. The current CINC was ever a sore subject with Billy Cole.

Once in the air, Jake leaned back into the seriously uncomfortable jump seat the aircraft provided and surveyed his team. Everyone else was struggling to get comfortable. Billy Cole was already sound asleep. CPO William Cole had been his alter ego on four previous missions, and the burly African-American had never once disappointed him. Jake knew that Billy Cole always “had his six.”

Over the two years they had worked together, Jake had been a frequent visitor to the Cole home, and his two kids, William, Jr. and Kelly, referred to him as “Uncle Jake.” Jake regarded Cole’s wife, Emma, somewhat in awe. She accepted Cole’s role as a SEAL, dangerous as it was, and seemed ready for anything, just the way his own mother and grandmother were. And now Jake wondered if his current love interest, Julie O’Leary, was that kind of woman.

Special Warfare Operator First Class (SO1) Foster Fowles was twenty-six years old, single, and had spent all of his life, after graduating high school, in the Navy. Blonde, of average height and build, his physical capabilities were still a match for anyone on the team. Fowles was, as was every other member of the team, an expert marksman. He was also a demolition and explosives expert.

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