Page 53 of No Going Back

Chapter 9

In their tactical wetsuits, Raven waited for the pilot to announce they were in place. They were being dropped about a mile offshore. It would take a good thirty minutes to swim to land. The water was still choppy from the storm, so it was going to be rough, but dropping any closer held way too much risk. For their dark, zero footprint op, the chopper needed to be undetected.

The pilot signaled they were in place. Donnie and Steve dropped the ropes. Ryan and Steve went down first. Tyler and Mackie next, then Dex and Donnie followed them. Until they got to shore, they had no coms and with limited visibility in the dark, Tyler could barely make out the rest of the team in the water. Silently, Raven swam toward shore. They stayed close to each other, moving as one unit in silence. Fuck, the water was cold, and the packs they carried were heavy, but they had done a lot worse in BUDS.

Thirty minutes later, the team rose, weapons aimed, from the water. They stepped from the waves onto a small private beach that was a part of Gomez’s property. As expected, the beach was deserted. Dex would have whistled if they weren’t on silent running. The place was a frigging mansion, easily two dozen rooms in the sprawling main house, not to mention the smaller cottages and obvious guard houses that dotted the property; Gomez certainly lived an affluent lifestyle. Supplying terrorists with weapons obviously paid well. The team moved in stealthily over to the trees where they paused to remove their wet suit hoods and engage coms.

“Everybody good?” Dex asked. The team all acknowledged they were. “Alright, let’s find a more secure spot to give us the line of sight for thermal,” he whispered.

He led the way through the trees, and they followed, no one making a sound. A few minutes later, Dex made the signal for them to stop. They were on the perimeter of Gomez’s property, and through the bushes had a clear view of the house.

“Mackie, let’s take a look.”

Thermal imaging revealed six people inside. Exactly the number intel had confirmed. Gomez, his wife, daughter, her fiancé, and two security. Outside six more security guards patrolled the house and gardens. They might be ex special forces, but they clearly had gotten soft. Dex noticed they never changed their path, direction, or timing. The men looked relaxed, seemingly not expecting trouble. Strategically placed floodlights lit up the house and some of the grounds.

Dex tapped his ear. “Raven 1 to base, team in position. How’s ISR looking?”

“Limited. Hopefully the clouds will clear more. I’ll keep you posted.” Mira’s voice came back.

“Copy that. OK, boys, we’ll stay here until it’s time.”

Over the next hour and a half, the team monitored the security and memorized their routine. No movement had been detected inside the house for the past forty-five minutes. Thermal imaging showing two in bed in a back bedroom, two more in the front bedroom.

“Boss, we got a problem,” Tyler said, studying the house through binoculars. “I see dogs. Two of them. Look like rottweilers.”

“Where?”

“Front driveway.” He passed the glasses to Dex. The team waited in silence for their team leader’s plan.

“Alright, do you have tranquilizer darts on you?” he asked, sounding completely unfazed as he looked.

“Yeah, two.”

“You better not miss, then,” Dex replied without missing a beat.

The team chuckled. Dex activated coms.

“Base, we got two dogs, front driveway. Are you able to see any more?”

“Stand by.”

A minute passed before Mira came back. “The cloud is still too thick for us to see much at all. Sorry, I don’t have a better line of sight for you. You have a plan?”

“Yeah, Raven five has darts.”

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