SEAL Team Six Hunt the Scorpion(41)
The militiaman translated. The men behind the table spoke all at once.
Crocker cut them off. “STOP! Tell them to listen. If they don’t do as I say, if they harm another prisoner, I’ll call in NATO troops. There’s a battalion of them right next door. All I have to do is give the signal and they’ll come in here weapons blazing, arrest all of you, and throw you in the same compound with the prisoners. You understand me?”
The leaders behind the table seemed to comprehend this time.
“No more beatings. No more abuse!”
“Yes. Yes.”
Akil whispered, “Maybe we should get out now, while we still have the upper hand.”
Crocker: “Alright. Slowly move toward the exit.”
As they did, the prisoners behind the fence started to shout.
Crocker said, “What the fuck are they screaming about now?”
Akil: “They say that there are more rooms downstairs where they torture the prisoners.”
“I want to see them.”
“Bad idea, boss.”
“Then tell these assholes that all this shit has to stop immediately. There are NATO troops next door. More inspectors will be here tomorrow. They need to clean this place up, now, before they’re all arrested!”
After Akil delivered the message, the fat man started shouting at the top of his lungs.
“He says that this is their country and they’ll do what they want.”
“Tell him I’m placing him and his two colleagues under arrest!”
“He wants you to leave.”
“Tell them to keep their hands on their heads and their mouths shut!”
When the young man who escorted them tried to grab his PP-91 back from Crocker, Crocker clocked him in the face. The man went down, blood spurting from his lip. Another guard made a quick move for a pistol in his belt. Mancini fired the AK he was holding and hit the guard in the leg.
Crocker released a long salvo from the PP-91 that flew over the guards’ heads. All the soldiers and prisoners dropped to the floor, except for the three men behind the table, who stood with their hands on their heads.
Davis: “Boss, this is getting ugly.”
Akil: “Real fucking nasty.”
Ritchie: “Just the way I like it.”
Crocker fired again. As the smoke cleared, he said, “Grab those three bastards. We’re taking them with us. They’re under arrest.”
Ritchie and Davis moved quickly and seized the three men roughly.
Akil: “Now what?”
“Back out slowly. Shoot anyone who raises their head.”
They exited in formation, with the three prisoners in the middle, past the startled guards at the gate, who lowered their weapons. As they scrambled into the SUV, Mancini shouted, “Start the engine, fast!”
The driver complied, spun the Suburban in a half circle, and flew down the road.
Jabril: “We heard shooting.”
Akil: “That was fucking insane.”
Lasher pointed to the three prisoners Davis and Mancini were tying up. “Who are they?”
Crocker: “The men handing out the punishment. I arrested them for war crimes.”
Lasher: “On what authority?”
Crocker: “My authority.”
Ritchie: “Is anyone really in charge of this shithole country?”
Akil: “Boss, you did the right thing.”
Crocker turned to Lasher and said, “Tell Remington that they’re torturing and executing people over there.”
Lasher: “I warned you not to go in.”
Crocker: “Call Remington!”
Lasher: “You’re a madman.”
Ritchie: “Fuck you, Lasher.”
Crocker: “Alright, everyone calm down.”
They rode back in silence, grumbling to themselves, a dozen thoughts swirling in Crocker’s head. He decided he wanted to complete their mission and get out of Libya as soon as possible. The place was starting to remind him of Somalia in the early nineties, when lawlessness prevailed as warlords running teenage gangs vied for power. He’d been in Mogadishu back in October 1993 when nineteen U.S. Special Forces soldiers lost their lives. The bloody rescue was re-created in the movie Black Hawk Down.
He’d also served in Iraq after the fall of Saddam and seen American soldiers and civilians caught in the middle of the Sunni-Shiite violence there. A good friend of his had been overwhelmed by a gang of Iraqis, stripped naked, hung from a bridge, tortured, and killed.
Peacekeeping missions could be ugly and difficult. He much preferred missions that targeted a specific enemy.
But who was the enemy here? Nobody seemed to know.
After dropping off the prisoners at NATO headquarters and his men at the guesthouse, Crocker continued with Lasher to the embassy. Both men were upset.
There, Crocker met with Jaime Remington and the U.S. ambassador in the ambassador’s office and described what he and his men had found at both the naval base and the refugee camp next door.