Devil's Brew, Book #8 of the Janitors series - Plan about to be put in motion.

Today’s excerpt is from Devil’s Brew, Book #8 of the nine-book Janitors Series.  Final planning for the greatly expanded team getting ready to take out five al-Qaida training camps…then once on site getting ready for action.  Enjoy and have a wonderful day. 

m.j.

 

“Now, on to another thing I’ve been thinking about.  General, do we have any Hind helicopters?”

General Bradley looked at Jim.  He thought a second about whether he should discuss that particular item with him, then sighed and nodded, ‘Yes.’

“One we can borrow?”

“I suppose.  And to answer your next question, we have…uh…at least one down at Bragg.”

“Good.  What about Saudi fatigues?”

“Yeah…we can get them from Bragg as well.   What-in-the-hell do you have in mind?”

“The chopper, to fly out any causalities we may have.  I’d just as soon leave the impression, in case seen, that this was a Russian operation.  As to the Saudi fatigues…Hector, I want you to round up about two dozen light-skinned Hispanics—preferably as many as possible who have good Arabic skills.  If we have to take out that village, I don’t want to kill the women and kids there.  In fact—now that I think of it—I’d like to leave any of the men we can capture there alive, too.  It’d confuse the hell out of things if we have a Hind flying around and Saudi troops take out the village.  I’m bettin’ that if those bozos come to the aid of their friends, they’ll send most of their troops on the mission.”

Hector smiled.  “I guess that means I have to wear some damn bushy black mustache.”

“Yeah.  You and all the guys.”

Hector nodded, “Okay.  Everybody, start checkin’ out who speaks Arabic in your groups…Hispanic or anyone who could pass as an Arab.  Jim, I guess you want me and my ‘Saudis’ to go in first, round up everybody, and put them in some building they can’t see out of while the rest of you come in and scope things over and rig it to go up if what we find displeases us.”

“I do.  Uh, General, does your Hind still have Russian markings?”

“It does.  Does your pilot know how to fly it?”

“Damned if I know.  How about takin’ our chopper, pickin’ Dan’s pilot Sly up, and taking him down to Bragg.  You can bring Hector’s new uniforms back with you.  Uh, Dan, does your Air Force Medic know how to fly a chopper, too?”

“I’d guess.  As much time as he’s spent with Sly, I’m sure he’s picked up something along the line.”

Sissy spoke up.  “I can fly the damn thing.  The Army isn’t the only folks to ever steal a Hind.”

Hector looked at Sissy and asked, “When did you learn to fly choppers?”

“On the way to my commission, I stopped off at Warrant Officer for a while.  Learned then.  Next question, runt?”

Jim thought a second while Hector and Sissy were joking, then smiled, “Okay, General, you’re now in charge of the reserve unit.  If you need to split it up, as we discussed earlier, just pick a good man to be your second-in-command.  While I think of it, Dan, take all our tents with you and get them set up.”

·          

Three days later, the entire force was situated at their airstrip in Iraq.  Sly Lewis had taken quickly to the Hind and it was decided he’d fly it, with Sissy handling the armament from the right-hand seat.  By then, Dan and his unit were already forward, positioned near where Drew and his team were gathering intelligence.  That intelligence bought some unhappy news.  There were close to thirty-five hundred men at the five camps.

Bruce and his team were on their way to join Dan and his group, while the others were making ready to follow closely.  By mid-afternoon, there was a long line of dune buggies snaking their way toward the terrorist camps.  The way to Drew’s location started up the backside of the low mountain range, then through a valley that took them out the other side of the range, about half a mile north of Drew.  The pass through the range was wide enough for the ninety-plus buggies to drive comfortably, six wide.  Therefore, the entire force was compressed to only about sixteen buggies deep when Jim called a stop.  He had Bruce take him up to Drew’s position for a fast chat.

There, after greeting Drew, Boris, Suzan, and the others at the observation post, Jim joked, “Nice mess you found for us, guys.  Any more added since last we spoke?”

Drew shook his head.  “No, in fact about forty left last night.  There has been some movement from camp to camp, but the overall numbers are about as we last told you.  One thing of interest—the Chechen camp only has about a hundred Chechens in it.  Camp 1 gets everyone first, then sends them on to one of the other four for further, specialized, training.  Oh, one more thing of particular interest.  Most of the rifle and mortar training is dry fire.  Don’t know if that means they’re short of ammo or just what, but that’d be our guess.”

 

Sponsored by:  www.mikejacksonbooks.com