Page 110 of Dead Fall

It was the one facet of the scenario Harvath hadn’t been able to visualize until he was physically on scene. The placement of the guards at each end of the village had been meant to fend off any external threats. None of the Ravens had anticipated trouble from inside—at least not anything they couldn’t handle via the .50-cals atop their two Humvees.

Harvath and Jacks covered each other as they scrambled from building to building.

When they were within striking distance of the guards, they took a fraction of a second to catch their breath. Then Harvath double-clicked the transmit button on his radio.

As soon as Hookah double-clicked his in response, Harvath counted down from five and gave the “Go” command.

He and Jacks then crept from their hiding spot and popped up from behind the jeep.

“Ne dvigaysya,” he ordered, taking the guards completely by surprise.Don’t move.

Startled, the men did move and tried to back away from him. That’s when Hookah and Krueger appeared around the front of the jeep, their weapons pointed right at the men.

When one of the Ravens reached for his radio, Jacks butt-stroked him with his rifle, knocking him to the ground, unconscious. Slowly, the other three men raised their hands in surrender.

As Jacks stood guard, Hookah and Krueger disarmed and secured the prisoners while Harvath stripped them of their radios and patted them down for any other weapons.

“What are we going to do with them?” asked Krueger.

“Throw them in the back of the jeep,” Harvath replied. “We’ll drive them out of here and make it look like they went AWOL. I’ll let Biscuit know we’re headed his way.”

Moving back to the rear of the jeep, he dropped the vehicle’s tailgate and saw something he hadn’t noticed a moment ago when making sure no one else was inside—two RPG-26 antitank shoulder-fired missiles. “Change of plans,” he immediately told his team.

Grabbing the RPGs, he handed one to Jacks and helped load the prisoners as he rattled off a quick list of instructions.

“Good copy?” he then asked.

“Good copy,” Hookah replied.

“Ooh-rah,” said Krueger.

As they fired up the jeep and drove off with the four Ravens, Harvath and Jacks headed back into the village. They had a chance to level the playing field a little bit. It was time to go hunting.

Subtlety was no longer on Harvath’s agenda. He wanted to deliver the biggest blow he could. To do that, he needed to take out the Humvees. Because of the crooked streets, they were going to have to get pretty close to do it. They were also going to have to split up.

According to Harvath’s list, a home in the village was hiding 2,300-year-old gold artifacts from the Scythian empire, dating back to the fourth century BC. It was one of the reasons he had reached out to Nicholas. In case Vesna’s warning didn’t make it through, or if the person responsible for safeguarding the items was suspicious, someone in the Ukrainian command structure could warn them.

With the house empty, there was no one to torture into revealing the location of the artifacts. The Ravens would be reduced to tearing the place apart brick by brick. The Humvee pulling security at that location was the one Harvath would take out. Jacks would hit the one covering the Ravens who were looting the other properties in the village. They went as far as they could together and then they split up.

With the RPG slung across his back, Harvath hopped fences and ran through yards, stopping every couple of houses to use his ears to triangulate on his target.

Finally, he found it, and once he did, he radioed the team. “Norseman in position.”

Up ahead he could see the Humvee, its gunner standing in the turret, as well as the cargo truck, which, to his delight, was positioned nearby.

A few moments later, Jacks came over the radio with his confirmation: “Jacks in position.”

All they were waiting for now was for their other team members to be in position. The Novator and the jeep were key to pulling off the rest of the operation.

The radio squawked, “Hookah en route,” followed by “Biscuit en route.”

A minute later they heard “Biscuit in position.”

Then Hookah’s voice came back again: “Hookah, fifteen seconds out. Send it.”

“Roger that,” said Harvath. “Jacks, you’re cleared hot. I’ll see you at the pickup.”

“Jacks is cleared hot. Roger that. See you on the other side,” the Brit replied.