Horizons by Donald B. McFarlane

Author:Donald B. McFarlane [McFarlane, Donald B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-06T22:00:00+00:00

29

Major Mike Tattersall, or Tatts to his friends, was starting to stink after three days in a hide location in the Iraqi desert fifteen miles outside of Mosul. The hide-site that he had picked was on a gentle slope and offered excellent views of the village that his team was surveying where a force of an estimated one thousand militants was holed up.

The day was like most in northern Iraq, warm and bright with a light breeze. The team was scheduled to be extracted at nightfall, which was still some six hours away when the first indicators of something amiss caught Mike’s attention. A loud bang from a position in the sky above the town, prompting Mike to look up to his second in command who was staring at the town through a pair of binoculars.

“What was that?” Mike shifted in the dugout hole they were in. “Sounded like a jet going supersonic.” His posh English accent unspoilt by the harsh conditions he was experiencing.

“I don’t see a thing, Boss.”

Mike shook his head and looked back down at the meal he was attempting to enjoy when another loud boom came from the centre of the village.

“Boss, I just saw a large plume of dust just came up from the vil.”

“Bomb?”

“Unsure. No detonation.”

Mike got up from his sitting position and rose to his feet, and peered out onto the sunny landscape down to the village that was made up of a few dozen buildings with a single road running towards Mosul and ran off to the right of the hide location.

Bring the radio handset to up, Mike gave a quick notice to his headquarters. “Zero, Romeo Four Zero Alpha. Possible activity in target village. Wait-out”

“Glasses.” He whispered.

He took the binoculars and peered down at the buildings. “Everything seems in good order.”

Mike set the binos down and looked towards the sky, and then scanned the terrain to the left and right of the village. “Get the other two teams on the net. Find out what they’re seeing.”

Just as the sergeant was about to respond a single gunshot rang out from the village, stopping the soldier where he stood, and drawing the breath out of the hide site. A single bead of sweat ran down the side of Mike’s head in the lull that followed the shot. He slowed his breathing, only allowing his eyes the freedom to move as they normally would. And just when it started to feel like someone in the village had accidentally discharged their weapon or perhaps an execution had been conducted, a roar of fire erupted in the centre of the village so ferocious that both Mike and his sergeant ducked down into their hide site.

Even though the hide was well outside the village, the volume of fire was so intense and involved what sounded like everything from AK47s to machine guns all the way to RPGs, that Mike couldn’t hear the incoming radio call from the other two teams that surrounded the village. Mike wasn’t sure what had just kicked off in the village, but it was massive.

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