Operation: Christmas Hearts by Kay Springsteen

Author:Kay Springsteen [Springsteen, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Somewhere in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Morning

T minus 10 days ’til Christmas

The staccato bark of weapons fire sounded close. Too close. The ping of a ricochet off the MRAP sent Nick and his men diving to the ground along with the members of the three-six.

Nick spat the dust out of his mouth. “Did you get that?”

Childers lay on his belly, sighting with his rifle scope. “Yeah, sounds like a couple of AKs to the south.” He barely lifted his chin in that direction. “In the old poppy field on the other side of the canal.”

Nick looked through Libby’s scope in the direction of the shots, but the only movement he detected was a few dried brown poppy seedpods fluttering in the stiff breeze. “That’s what I got too. That the same group that’s been hounding us?”

“Sounds like it. One of the AKs jams every couple of rounds.”

Nick lowered his M16. “What are we going to do about it, sergeant?”

Childers shook his head and regarded Nick from behind dark glasses. “Orders are to take the straight route in.”

“Yeah, and those guys aren’t trying to hit us, or they’d have scored a direct ten klicks back when we first heard from them.” Nick raised himself onto his elbows. The shooting had stopped. “So they’re pushing us forward, where we’re already heading… why?”

“To keep us away from something else? To send us in the wrong direction? To make us think we’re going in the right direction?” Childers rubbed his jaw. “Heck, I don’t know. This is my third tour in-country, and every time I think I have these guys figured out, they change the rules.”

Nick squinted into the distance. “Kind of makes you wonder what’s on the other side of that canal, doesn’t it?”

Childers nodded. “Orders are not to engage, sir.”

Nick stared at Childers, pondering how much the other man might know about the covert part of the mission. It was definitely need to know. But just maybe Sergeant Childers had a need to know. “Orders change depending on circumstances. I don’t like being driven where we thought we wanted to go.”

Childers nodded. “I agree.”

Nick scanned the road ahead. “There’s an outcropping of rock up there, and it’s on a ridge. It’s an easy place to protect. I say we continue on until we get there then take a break. A couple of Lima team can take a look-see for our drovers.”

Nick was pleased to see Childers nod his agreement. If the man didn’t agree with a course of action, he hadn’t yet been shy about saying so. And he did know his stuff, which made sense. He hadn’t survived multiple deployments in-country by being an idiot.

Childers issued the appropriate orders, while Nick talked to the army CO. If he and Childers were right, the focus of their mission was about to change yet again. Situation goat rope... all snarled up.

A sensation of awareness, just a tiny prickle, worked its way along Nick’s nerves until it settled in his neck. He rubbed at the pressure there, while he considered their circumstances.

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