SEAL Team Six Hunt the Falcon(93)
Akil turned to Ritchie and whispered, “That’s it.”
Ritchie felt along the wall, tapped on it, and put his ear up to it. He whispered, “No way I can blast through that without causing a big commotion.”
“How big?” Crocker whispered back.
“Real big,” Ritchie answered. “Anahita told us the whole wall had been reinforced with metal. I think there’s metal plates behind here, too.”
Akil carried a rough sketch of Quds Force HQ that Danush had given him, and he now unfolded it. He said, “Our main targets are on the fourth floor,” referring to Alizadeh and Suleimani.
“This isn’t going to work,” Crocker said.
Ritchie: “What do you mean, boss?”
“Not this way, it isn’t.”
“But—”
“Quiet,” Crocker said, as anxious looks were exchanged. Turning to Akil, he said, “Ask Rahman to show us to the roof.”
Akil translated. A game-looking Rahman nodded. They climbed quickly behind him, holding their weapons and seventy-five-pound packs on their backs.
Breathing hard in the tight space, Akil said, “Rahman is going to turn off the building’s alarm system, so if we want to hide on the roof, we should do it now.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s got about thirty seconds to re-engage it.”
Crocker asked, “How long will it take him to get to it?”
“A few seconds.”
“Tell him to go now.”
Rahman waved his arm and muttered something. Akil translated: “First, he wants to know how we’re going to get out.”
“Tell him we’ll manage. And thanks.”
Rahman grunted a sound of disapproval.
“What’d he say?”
“He says he’ll drive one of his trucks to the back of the theater in the morning.”
Crocker: “Tell him that’s not necessary.”
Rahman grabbed Crocker’s wrist and pointed to his watch.
Akil: “He wants to know what time.”
“Tell him ten fifteen.”
Mancini whispered to Crocker. “Chief, I need Akil to record something for me first.”
“Make it quick.”
The two SEALs went off into a corner while Crocker removed his pack, knelt, then gave Rahman the signal to go. The second he left, Crocker started to count the seconds in his head. At sixteen he pushed through the door and did a quick recon of the roof, which was flat and covered with thick black tar. To the right of the door sat a seven-foot-high metal cooling unit painted white.
Crocker got on his belly and crawled ten feet from the back of the unit to the edge of the building. He guesstimated a four-foot gap and a six-foot fall-off between the roof of the movie theater and that of Quds Force headquarters. Sticking out from the HQ roof near the front of that building was a rectangular cement structure that looked as if it housed a stairway, cooling unit, and guardhouse. Two soldiers with automatic weapons stood outside it.
His recon completed, Crocker turned, crawled back quickly, and waved the men through the door. They made it just in time.
The SEALs sat with their backs against the cooling unit and waited. As the sun started to light up the sky, Crocker heard a man from a nearby mosque call out the morning prayer known as Fajr over a microphone. His high, pleading voice echoed through the streets.
“What’s he saying?” Ritchie asked in a low voice.
“God hears those who call upon him. Our Lord, praise be to You,” Akil answered. “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.”
Richie nodded. “I’m cool with that. It’s only when Allah starts telling them they’ve got to kill other people that I have a problem.”
Akil: “Allah never tells us that.”
“Why?” Ritchie asked. “Because he doesn’t exist, or people deliberately misinterpret what he’s saying?”
“Quiet!” Crocker whispered.
A warm breeze blew in a cover of low gray clouds. A cool light rain started to fall.
“How much longer are we gonna wait?” Ritchie asked, wiping the precipitation off his forehead.
“Yeah, boss, what’s the plan?” Akil echoed.
Crocker looked at his watch: 0732. “I figure by 1000 hours whoever is coming to work today will be in the building,” he whispered. “That’s when we’re going to launch. Akil, you and I will go first. We’ll take out the guards. Mancini, you and Ritchie take the stairway and head down one flight to four. Look for Alizadeh and Suleimani. They’re our primary targets.”
“Then what?”
“We grab whatever hard drives, thumb drives, or CDs we can find and fight our way back to the stairway.”
“Then?”