Page 70 of Stand Fast

“What a fucking nightmare,” he muttered under his breath.

Freeman was still holding on.

“Let’s do this.”

Zaid glanced behind him to find Prentiss crouched there. He nodded. “Cap?” he asked Hamilton.

“Ready. Freeman, Khan and Prentiss are coming to you. Get ready. Rest of you, concentrate your fire on those trucks,” their team leader said.

“Copy,” Freeman answered, the foreign note of stress in his voice sending a surge of adrenaline through Zaid’s body.

He pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly, his muscles tensing, weight poised on the balls of his feet.Now.

He charged over the lip of the ridge, firing at the targets moving below on the road while his teammates opened up with suppressive fire. Prentiss was right behind him.

“Move, Freeman,” Zaid ordered, rushing to his teammate as he fired, the retreating NIU members coming up the slope adding to the confusion.

Freeman bolted from behind cover and hauled ass up the slope. The moment he reached them, Zaid and Prentiss began their retreat, firing as they moved. Rounds whizzed around them, the tracers streaking past in the darkness. Zaid’s heart pounded against his sternum as he raced back to the safety of the ridge and jumped over the lip.

Panting, he closed his eyes for a moment and said a prayer of thanks before looking over at Hamilton, who was still on the radio but watching the situation below with a sharp eye. Using hand motions, the team leader ordered them to move east, staying behind the ridge. All nine of them got up and moved single file toward a rise that would give them a good vantage point so they could see what was happening below.

“Gunship should be on station within the next six minutes,” Hamilton reported as they ran in a crouch to their new position. “Khan, see if you can find out what the hell’s going on from those guys,” he said, meaning the NIU members racing for the safety of the ridge.

Zaid didn’t know what kind of aircraft Hamilton had requested, and he didn’t care so long as it showed up in a hurry to clear off those traitorous assholes below. He searched the faces of the NIU members scrambling up the hill.

He recognized one as the man slid over the edge of the ridge and ran toward the guy, weapon up. “Drop your weapon!” he yelled in Dari.

The man whirled, his eyes wide, and quickly lowered his weapon before holding his hands up.

“Why are you shooting at us?”

“Not us! Them!” He waved an arm toward the chaos unfolding below them. “Our own members opened fire on us before turning on you.”

“Where’s General Nasar?” He was supposed to be here directing his men. Had he been hit?

“I have not seen him,” the man panted.

This was so fucked up. FAST Bravo had worked with this same NIU unit for three consecutive deployments now, and FAST Alpha longer than that. And Nasar couldn’t just have disappeared into thin air. Zaid had seen the guy getting onto another Blackhawk back at base. “How many attacked you?”

“At least half of our force.”

Half their own force had turned on the other? “Why?” Why the fuck would they do this? Were they hoping to capture the shipment themselves, then get it across the border and sell it to make a profit?

“I don’t know! I swear I don’t know what’s—” The man broke off and hunched over, his expression twisting as he dragged his hands down his face with a choked sound.

Zaid reported his findings to Hamilton as he hurried back to his own team. Until they knew who they could trust on the NIU, that unit was on their own.

Hamilton was on the radio again. “Copy that.” He cursed and grabbed for his weapon. “You’re not gonna fucking believe this,” he said, and Zaid’s stomach dropped. Every man on the team was watching Hamilton now. “It’s Nasar. He’s The Jackal.”

Zaid reeled at the announcement. But it made so much sense all of a sudden.

Nasar had been at all the briefings. He had the training and knowhow to pull something like this off. He knew the mission inside and out. How many men would be here, the timing, everything.

Rage built inside Zaid, a hot pressure expanding beneath his ribs. Thatfucker. That fucker had set them all up to die here so he could get his dope across the border.

The sound of approaching aircraft filled the air. Zaid glanced to his left just as the two Apaches appeared out of nowhere, rising into view from where they’d been hidden behind a hill in the distance.

A roar of approval rang out from the team. Zaid rolled to his belly and put the stock of his weapon to his shoulder, peering over the edge of the ridge as the attack helicopters unleashed a stream of withering fire on the enemy from their 30 mm cannons.

---