Siege at Tiamat Bluff by David DeLee

Author:David DeLee [DeLee, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Road Publishing
Published: 2019-12-14T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Her words still rang in Bannon’s ears. “I killed him.”

The man Elizabeth Grayson referred to had disappeared behind the bandshell. But his presence lingered. The color had drained from Grayson’s face. Her posture slumped.

President Kingsley clasped her hands, trying to comfort her.

Bannon twisted in his seat on the other side of her. “Tell us.”

She kept her voice low. “His name is Chase Edwards.”

Bannon watched as she wrestled with the questions in her head. Was it really the man she thought it was? How could he be alive? And the question he was sure they shared. What did this mysterious man have to do with the mess they were in now and why had he tried to attack McMurphy and himself at the race yesterday?

“Nearly twenty years ago, he’d been recruited into the CIA’s Special Activities Division, the Special Activities Center now.” She shifted in her seat. “Chase Edwards was one of the best operatives I’d ever seen, ever worked with.” She looked at Bannon and forced a smile. “Until you, of course.”

Bannon didn’t dwell on the compliment. “What happened?”

Grayson fell silent.

“Liz, please,” Bannon said. “It could be important.”

“There was an op, early in the second Iraqi war. They called it Operation: Lightning Strike. Chase and his team led a squad of Army Special Forces and other infantry troops tasked with taking out enemy forces entrenched in the mountain regions near the Iranian border. The fighting went well at first, and then it turned. Still, Chase and his people fought on, heroically pushing the retreating soldiers out of the mountains and toward the border. But there, the Iranians pushed back, refusing to allow our enemy combatants entry into their country—most of them anyway. It was a public display of their non-involvement policy at the time. The fighting was fierce. It was impossible to tell who was shooting at who. The Pentagon and the White House were nervous. A conflict with Iran at the time was the last thing they wanted. A Colonel at the time, I commanded an Airborne Brigade. I led the extraction effort to get them out. We brought two CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters into the fight.”

She shook her head at the memory.

“A hell of a firefight, one of the worst in my career. And then, we were ordered back.”

“Before you could extract?” Bannon didn’t need to ask by whom. Bureaucrats; politicians with no military experience playing at war games from Washington.

Grayson didn’t need to confirm his suspicions. “So afraid we’d cause an international incident, their fear led to paralysis,” she said. “I ignored the orders for as long as I could. We managed to extract the bulk of the Special Forces folks, but the fighting got too fierce. The Iranians had had enough and began shooting at us. We couldn’t return fire. We couldn’t let ourselves shot down. I made the decision. I followed orders. And we left…I left good men behind to die.”

“You were following orders,” Bannon said.

“It couldn’t be helped,” Kingsley said.

“I’ve told myself that over the years.

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