Page 13 of Protecting Clove (Loved by the SEAL #5)
B ud didn’t like the changes they made this morning to their plan, but they made sense.
The guy they needed to take in had brought in more people.
He had to know something was up. For a moment, they discussed abandoning the plan altogether, but waiting wasn’t an option.
Back channel rumors had this group doing a terrorist attack in DC next month.
They were preparing for the attack and now the people in intelligence believed the new guys were the ones headed to the USA to lead the attack.
Bud wasn’t placing the detonator. Instead, he was rushing in with Hop and Zip. Once they were inside, they would capture as many of the enemy as they could, but if they were shot at, they would return fire.
Moving into position had his heart racing. Q was up high, watching the area. Trip was up on the other side, both of them keeping their combined teams safe. Kevlar’s team was split between catching runners and busting inside with him and his guys.
“We’re going in ten,” Kevlar said over coms.
This was what they’d been waiting for. The moon was in the dark phase, and most of the stars were covered with scattered clouds.
The lights from other buildings were low, and the ones that were problems would be shot out as they entered the structure.
Safe was set up to cut the power to this place so everything would be dark.
Only people with night vision would be able to operate.
They were down to five seconds before going in when they started to move into position. Q’s voice broke the silence.
“Fall back. Abandon the plan.”
Bud felt the hesitation of the other guys, but Q’s warning gave them the time they needed to back up before the entire structure exploded. Bud fell to the ground and scrambled to get behind a wall that would allow him some protection.
All hell broke loose. He could tell who was friend versus foe, so he began firing, killing anyone in the area who wasn’t another SEAL. It felt like a long time, but it was probably less than a minute before all the enemy was dead.
“What the fuck?” Kevlar asked.
“We’ve got incoming,” Trip said.
“We need to fall back. We’ll meet at the rendezvous point,” Rider said.
Everyone signaled they understood. Bud was alone. Somehow, he’d been separated from the other guys who’d been beside him. He had to get clear of the surrounding building and make his way around to the other side of the city. The place they were meeting would take him about thirty minutes to get to.
Bud moved out, heading to the east first then going north once he was clear of the immediate danger.
One thing he had to watch for was widespread resistance, but he didn’t run into anyone else.
Somehow the guy had known they were planning their attack.
This wasn’t the first mission that had been compromised.
They needed to figure out what the hell was going on.
It took him more than thirty minutes to get to the location they’d picked as the last measure for pick up if things went haywire. None of them expected to use this location, but here they all were, just waiting for the helicopter to swoop in and pick them up.
“Dammit, that was close,” Trip said.
“I hate this,” Flash added.
MacGyver shook his head. “Someone knew.”
Rider looked pissed. “And they blabbed.”
Zip was next to say his piece. “People in the intelligence community knew about this raid because they’d asked for it.”
Rider shook his head. “No blame yet. We’ll deconstruct after we get on the ship. This is a shit show, and we’re in the middle of it.”
“Fuck.” Bud hated every bit of this mission. If they couldn’t trust other people in the government, their effectiveness would be hampered.
The flight out to the carrier off the coast was somber compared to flights they took after a successful mission.
There was nothing successful about what had happened today.
After a mission they were debriefed and it took time, but this would take forever.
He hated the idea that they would be held until they figured out who had caused the failure of this mission.
Maybe this time, they would be able to figure out where the leak was and fix it. He hated the implications that it could have been one of them because he knew the other SEALs well, and they wouldn’t do this kind of shit. They were trustworthy, and he wouldn’t ever doubt them.