Trigger Point by Matthew Glass

Author:Matthew Glass [Glass, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Suspense, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781443407144
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

32

THE HELICOPTERS HAD gone in at dusk in Uganda, 10am in Washington. An attack force of nine Apaches flew in low over the LRA base that had been identified in the jungle south of the Sudan border. What happened in the ensuing engagement was still confused and military debriefers were trying to put together the sequence of events. What was clear was that two of the Apaches were down and their four crew members were down with them.

‘This happened five hours ago?’ demanded Knowles incredulously. ‘Five hours and no one told me?’

‘I only just found out after the meeting, sir,’ said Oakley.

‘What the hell? What–’ The president stopped. He looked at Hale. ‘When did you find out, General?’

‘I’ve been aware since last night that the operation was imminent. This was the operation you authorized yesterday, Mr President.’

‘And were you aware that this had turned into this … I don’t know what you’d call it. This goddamn fuck-up! Is that what you’d call it?’

‘I think it’s a fair description, sir. We’ve been trying to recover our pilots.’

‘Can we find out what the situation is? Can we at least get that?’

Hale nodded. ‘I’ll get Admiral Pressler.’

They waited while Hale made some calls. Finally a call came back on the president’s phone.

‘Admiral,’ said Hale into the speakerphone, ‘I’m here with the president and Secretary Oakley.’

Pete Pressler was on the line from the command room of the Abraham Lincoln and there was a kind of low, whirring sound in the background.

‘Admiral,’ said Knowles, ‘can you tell me what’s going on?’

‘We have two Apaches down, sir.’ The admiral’s voice was terse. ‘The circumstances aren’t clear yet. We believe one of them hit the tree canopy and brought the other one down. On the plus side, we believe we killed upwards of fifty LRA fighters possibly including some of their senior leadership. From that perspective it was a high-impact mission but we have four men down. We believe one of them died on impact.’

‘Pete, do we know that for certain now?’ said Hale.

‘I believe we now have the body, sir.’

‘Do we have men on the ground?’ asked the president.

‘Yes, sir. We do. We’ve secured the downed Apaches but there’s no sight of our guys or any of their fighters. Just a bunch of LRA bodies in pieces. We didn’t have men on the ground at the time of the incident. It was a purely aerial assault in keeping with your wishes, sir.’

‘Admiral Pressler,’ said Oakley, ‘operational decisions are yours, as you know. The president doesn’t intervene.’

‘Yes, sir,’ said Pressler brusquely. ‘Anyway, I’ve got three of my guys still alive down there in enemy hands and right now that’s all I’m worried about. Hold on, please.’

They heard something being said in the background and the admiral replied sharply. Then he came back on the line.

‘Admiral,’ said Oakley, ‘how long after the incident did you get men on the ground?’

‘As soon as we could. We’re in darkness here now. We have drone surveillance in operation but at this point it’s all infrared and the jungle comes alive at night.

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